Deer in distress...?

[661-Pete]

...or not? One of those agonizing 'should I have done something about it?' moments. A commonplace enough event on this morning's spin: pootling along a quiet and lonely country lane near Horsham, young male deer on the road, as I approach it dashes off through a gap in the hedge.

Only it didn't seem to quite make it, got tangled in a fence and started struggling. I didn't intervene, can't imagine I would have done any good and would quite possibly have got hurt myself (those antlers looked sharp!). And as for summoning the RSPCA - well the deer would either be gone - or dead - by the time they showed up.

So I left it. Hope it extricated itself somehow.

 

[Jane Smart]

Deer are very panicky. Stress can kill them as much as anything. Hard decision to make, but I would probably have made the same on as you

 

[Lisa21]

Mmm, that is true. Hopefully when you'd gone it would have calmed down enough to free itself.

I would probably have tried to help tho and ended up in A&E for my troubles.

 

[longers]

Any chance you could pop back tomorrow and check if it's still there?

 

[Jane Smart]

Any chance you could pop back tomorrow and check if it's still there?

If it is dead though please don't tell us

 

[661-Pete]

Any chance you could pop back tomorrow and check if it's still there?

If your interest is - ahem - spurred by different motives than compassion - well you don't want to know - you really don't want to know - what internal parasites wild deer are all too often infested with. Go for farmed venison if you want to be eating: just venison rather than venison with 'extras'. I can only surmise that Robin Hood & co. weren't too picky...

 

[Joe24]

Survival of the fittest
If the deer is too stupid, and not good enough to jump the fence, then it should die and let the deer that are strong and better breed!

 

[Lisa21]

Oh Joe, dont be like that. It panicked. Got frightened and panicked, thats all. A bit like you would If Jane was walking toward you with a glass of wine in her hand and that look in her eye.............

 

[longers]

Nope, strictly honourable intentions Pete.

If it's stuck and if it has survived any overnight marauding opportunistic wildlife then a call to the RSPCA/International Deer Rescue would be timely.

 

[Jane Smart]

Oh Joe, dont be like that. It panicked. Got frightened and panicked, thats all. A bit like you would If Jane was walking toward you with a glass of wine in her hand and that look in her eye.............

smacks Lisa for her cheek

 

[Lisa21]

smacks Lisa for her cheek

 

[ianrauk]

And if it is can you cut a nice bit of hind leg for me for the pot.. thanks.

Any chance you could pop back tomorrow and check if it's still there?

 

[661-Pete]

Nope, strictly honourable intentions Pete.

If it's stuck and if it has survived any overnight marauding opportunistic wildlife then a call to the RSPCA/International Deer Rescue would be timely.

Alas I can't get back there tomorrow. It was not too far from a village, surely someone else will have passed that way since.

Once someone at my workplace got all panicky because (he said), while driving across the Downs to work, he'd scared a sheep into a barbed wire fence. He'd stopped and tried to free the animal but without success. Once at his desk (this was before mobile phones) he phoned the police and the RSPCA, who promised to try and contact the farmer. I don't know the outcome.

 

[Joe24]

Oh Joe, dont be like that. It panicked. Got frightened and panicked, thats all. A bit like you would If Jane was walking toward you with a glass of wine in her hand and that look in her eye.............

I dont think i would panic

 

[Mr Pig]

We passed a sheep tangled in a fence about six-months ago. I carry a Leatherman tool and I cut the wire either side of it and set it free. That fence wire is sodding tough, I thought the tool might snap, and I was worried about my fingers as the sheep jumped and kicked all over the place.

When I was a kid we found a cow trapped in a barbed-wire fence. Two of us stayed with it and two went and fetched the farmer. Neglected to tell the farmer we'd been riding on the cows though ;0)