I had a rather unpleasant call out today,
A deer had been attacked by a dog and was bleeding, the dogs owner had called of her dog but the deer was obviously hurt.
luckily I was just about to get started for the day and the field was just a 10 minute drive, so there was not to much downtime lost between call and getting there.
I was half expecting to be unable to catch the deer if it only had superficial bite wounds without darting it, but after I found out it had been attacked by a bullmastiff that seemed fairly unlikely. (for those that do not know that is one big dog actually bred to STOP poachers) The dog owner had thrown a blanket over it and it had crawled to the edge of a field and had been laying there since the attack.
The deer turned out to be a nice adult roe doe, she had bite wounds on her thigh with clearly to much movement in her knee joint (dislocated from trying to wriggle free probably) and another bite wound on her ribcage with a few ribs that were caving in. Due to the nature of the injuries and the fact that the deer made no attempt to run away and was pretty much in shock I did not see any other option than to end her ordeal. (despite the owners willingness to lock it in a horse box and treat it if necessary.)
She had no milk in her udder so hopefully no dependant young fawn anymore, a look around the field did not reveal any.
after shooting it I found she had punctured lungs and a burst spleen and was basically dying from internall bleeding.
Before everyone starts screaming that the dog owner was to blame;
The little field (4 acre probably) that the deer was in belongs to the dog owner, is next to their house and is used it to let the dog have a run in/run the horses in. Why the deer did not run away I don´t know, but it was probably caught of guard or hiding when the attack happened as a bullmastiff is not really the fastest in a short sprint. Plus atleast the dog was called of and help was called in.
That being said, I am not sure if I would trust that dog around sheep...
I was however wondering how often do other people actually see/find deer that have been caught by dogs?
usually they tend to be perfectly able to get away unless they are either really young or already injured, and more often get injured trying to run away than actually be caught that easily?
A deer had been attacked by a dog and was bleeding, the dogs owner had called of her dog but the deer was obviously hurt.
luckily I was just about to get started for the day and the field was just a 10 minute drive, so there was not to much downtime lost between call and getting there.
I was half expecting to be unable to catch the deer if it only had superficial bite wounds without darting it, but after I found out it had been attacked by a bullmastiff that seemed fairly unlikely. (for those that do not know that is one big dog actually bred to STOP poachers) The dog owner had thrown a blanket over it and it had crawled to the edge of a field and had been laying there since the attack.
The deer turned out to be a nice adult roe doe, she had bite wounds on her thigh with clearly to much movement in her knee joint (dislocated from trying to wriggle free probably) and another bite wound on her ribcage with a few ribs that were caving in. Due to the nature of the injuries and the fact that the deer made no attempt to run away and was pretty much in shock I did not see any other option than to end her ordeal. (despite the owners willingness to lock it in a horse box and treat it if necessary.)
She had no milk in her udder so hopefully no dependant young fawn anymore, a look around the field did not reveal any.
after shooting it I found she had punctured lungs and a burst spleen and was basically dying from internall bleeding.
Before everyone starts screaming that the dog owner was to blame;
The little field (4 acre probably) that the deer was in belongs to the dog owner, is next to their house and is used it to let the dog have a run in/run the horses in. Why the deer did not run away I don´t know, but it was probably caught of guard or hiding when the attack happened as a bullmastiff is not really the fastest in a short sprint. Plus atleast the dog was called of and help was called in.
That being said, I am not sure if I would trust that dog around sheep...
I was however wondering how often do other people actually see/find deer that have been caught by dogs?
usually they tend to be perfectly able to get away unless they are either really young or already injured, and more often get injured trying to run away than actually be caught that easily?