Deers + Cast Iron Fences = Death

I realize that today's post title is a bit morbid, but it does not even begin to explain the tragedy I saw last night.

Let me start off by saying that as the years go on, and the higher up we build our homes into the the mountains, the wild deer have become more and more domesticated. Lately I have seen an influx of deer in my in-laws neighborhood in herds of 6 or 7 parading through the streets like a West Side Story gang. Just in the past week we have seen deer in our backyard hanging out and close to the porch of our home, seemingly undaunted by human existence.

The family that lives across the street (is actually our Bishop as a side note) has an iron cast fence around his home. I would guess it is somewhere around 6 feet or so with "spikes" atop each pole. In the past I heard there had been a problem of deer trying to clear the fence and getting stuck, but nothing like what happened last night. Because of past experiences the Bishop would leave the door to his fence open, thus letting the deer come and go as the please without harm. As you might recall last night was one of the nicer nights of the summer, so there were plenty of people outside; families, children, pets, motor scooters, etc. Next door to the Bishop's home was a Young Single Adult activity or the equivalent thereof happening. A deer appeared, and most likely startled at the number of people out and about, decided to jump over the fence. The sad part was he didn't make it. I won't go into much detail, needless to say there was a lot of blood and he was stuck on top of the fence, and he was hanging upside down with most of his insides exposed. What's more sad is that he was alive. And while we waited for Animal Control Services to arrive my neighbor and I attempted to lift the poor deer off of the fence so as to settle down the spectacle that was gathering around this scene. As we approached him to lift him off the fence, he would violently shake and attempt to free himself. We thought it would be best to wait for reinforcements. There were people there that had ammunition, but were not willing to use that force especially with small children around. Eventually 2 Sandy Police officers showed up, asked the tear soaked, traumatized children to avert their eyes, as he shot the deer.

Quite a sad story, and the poor deer spent the night on the front lawn because apparently Animal Control Services couldn't arrive until this morning.

Moral of the story: Don't feed the deer.