Saturday, July 11, 2009

The smell of death

Sometimes things in the country happen that are very sad.

Yesterday as I headed out, I noticed a small buck deer lying in the field. He seemed to be watching traffic.

I passed my husband in his truck a few thousand yards away and we stopped to chat before parting ways. He noted the deer in the field, too.

Later he called to tell me that he had driven his truck up in the field to check on the deer. When it didn't move, he investigated further.

The poor little deer had been hit by a car. His back legs or back was broken and he could not move.

In another decade, my husband might have come home and loaded his gun and put the poor creature out of his misery, but in the New America, the land of the police state and lack of common sense, where everyone is just waiting to pounce on you and put a picture of you on Youtube, you don't perform acts of compassion. You call Animal Control and let them do it because otherwise you could be charged with a misdemeanor and heavily fined if not jailed.

My husband called me to tell me the poor deer was not just watching traffic after all. He described the scene to me and I felt shivers up my spine.

When I drove home and I passed the spot where the deer had lain, I was sure I could smell death.

It definitely colored the day.

4 comments:

  1. I think in Floyd County the act of compassion could still be done without penalty...in any event...a very sad story.

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  2. Ugh. I hate to hear stuff like that. I'm so sorry.

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  3. This happened in our field just two weeks ago. A motorist who hit the deer stopped at our door to tell us what happened while they phoned animal control. I was an anxious for the poor deer for 1/2 hour until the officer arrived and had to put it down. The most upsetting part of this experience is that VDOT didn't come for the body for 3 days! You can imagine what happens within 3 days- very upsetting.

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  4. I hit my first (and only so far) deer right when we moved out here. It was night. Unfortunately it was dead. A neighbor drove up and told me to go home that he'd take care of it. I did have the children with me.

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