Deer Strike - what should you do?

[Darkside]

Sorry Sian, I didn't intend to upset you, it's not a nice subject to deal with. :frown:  Don't read any more.

The other method I have seen, (not recommend) was a yearling roe in a village, with a few panicking bystanders, that was immobile but alive. I arrived at the same time as the vet, we wrapped a towel round it's head to calm it. The poor beast had the skin round it's neck torn, the vet quickly and  calmly clamped the jugular, stopping the blood flow to the brain, while I held the towel round it's head. He went to his car, looked out the bottle of barbiturates and seditive to put it to sleep...before he had even breached the bottle it was away. He just told the onlookers that it had been overcome by its injuries.   

 

[ChrisPackham]

You'd definitely have had the police there quickly if you'd got your shotgun out to put it out of it's misery.  Doubt you'd be using it again for shooting clays afterwards though.  Ignore anyone who suggests you should have.

I suppose an option would have been to run it over with your car to finish it off.  Not sure I could have done that though.

How about someone else car? I quite like mine... Agreed the rapid response of Police, I have met those guess too, absolute monsters!

"At the very least it should have been restrained and taken quickly to a place where it could have been safely dispatched."

Not necessarily by you, but it needed doing by the sound of it.

PP, I was not inferring it should be done by you and in front of that assembling crowd, nor across someone's beautifully manicured lawn. (I know from experience what a mess it can make)

Swiftly and sensitively all round is the way, but you have to make your own decisions and live with the consequences. I can tell you are upset by this, as I would be if I could not have acted in such a way. Nobody wants this situation to occur in the first place, but it does happen and needs a measured response when it does. A fact of life (or death) I'm afraid.

Just my views PP. This happens every day but we don't always get so close to the situation.

I agree, it's odd how you act when things happen to you though, especially when the driver is so upset and you are blocking traffic...benefit of hindsight it would have been different, wheel clamp to the rescue?

Wheel clamp reference is not serious, for the avoidance of all doubt.  In understand that the Deer was tracked and dispatched last night around 9 pm around 200 yards from collision by the game keeper for the land so the suffering was as limited as possible.  Still a horrible thing to witness and has changed the way I drive at that time of day/night, I wouldn't what one through the windscreen.. Be careful everyone!

 

[chippy]

Am I the only one thinking  Briased Haunch of muntjac in red wine. 

 

[Rob C]

Am I the only one thinking  Briased Haunch of muntjac in red wine. 

Probably ......

 

[ChrisPackham]

Am I the only one thinking  Briased Haunch of muntjac in red wine. 

I assumed that wouldn't have been edible, too much adrenaline I would imagine.

 

[Darkside]

It would be fine...nothing a good sauce couldn't hide!!! Just so long as you get it before the vet injects it with barbiturates...

 

[chippy]

If you get it after the vet you can reduce the amount of wine.

 

[Darkside]

If you get it after the vet you can reduce the amount of wine.

 

[ips]

I've done a bit of 'dispatching' RTA's for my vet, I've seen my vet administer leathel injections to wild deer and  I've seen other vets dispatching deer by leathel injection (very badly)...in the situation PP was in, my thoughts would be, cover the animals head with a jumper/jacket/blanket/cloth bag, basically anything that stops it from being able to see. Once in the dark, deer/horses/cattle/most animals tend to stay still and calm. Do not call the RSPCA, call the police, explaining you have had an RTA with a wild deer, your location and describe to them the status of the deer as best you can, the police will then contact either a vet or if they have one, a local authorised person to deal with or dispatch the RTA victim. 

Unless you know what you are doing, I would not recommend trying to dispatch a deer with a knife, you must have a certain level of confidence and competence with a knife to do it humanly, without injuring yourself in the process. The public might freak out watching it be done and the police may just take a dim view on it too!!!

I've done it at the side of the road, with a poilice officer present before, the deer's intestines were hanging out, it's pelvis shattered, but was still concious and 'crying'...not nice!!! The best place is at the axis joint, downward through the spinal cord, kneeling on the body, just behind the shoulder, ideally from the back. Hold the head firmly tucked forward, slip the point of the blade between the axis joint, down through the spinal colum, little wiggle, pull out the blade and place it safely to the side, hold the beast flat and let the legs kick until the nerves stop.

is it just me or does James sound like the kind of bloke you would want with you if a group of you were to be marooned on a desert island ????

you catch it and butcher it and we will cook it.

 

[westley]

this is a quandary that's for sure.

despatching with shotgun absolutely not

trying to restrain it, good luck with that

knife job, in front of a crowd rather you than me.

call the rspca let them deal with it.

i would not beat yourself up over this, you were in a difficult situation,

I think you may well find that the RSPCA will tell you to phone the Police. Mind you, if you told them the local stag hounds were in attendance too, they would have been there before you could hang up !