As I was walking a clearcut today, I noticed ravens and eagles flying in tight circles which indicated to me that there was something dead underneath them. We looked for about an hour for something dead. Gave up and started back to the truck. As we were walking down a old skidder trail, we looked down and in a skidder rut, which eroded to about 3.5' deep and about 1.5' wide, was a deer on it's back stuck in a rut, flaying its legs wildly trying to right itself and get out of the rut. I grabbed its back legs while the other guy grabbed it's front legs and we lifted the deer out of the rut. The deer was in distress and badly injured. I cell phoned the CO. who told us to dispatch the deer once we were sure it would not recover. What I think happened is as the deer was running across the clearcut it fell in the rut injuring itself when it violently hit the side of the fissure in the ground.
by chris lavoie » Tue Oct 19, 2010 9:26 pm 