Sad and Hard Things

Herb came inside this morning with a sad announcement as he went to get his rifle.

A deer had tried to leap the fence below Kara's house coming uphill and had caught its leg on the fence.  Herb figured it was dead, but took his gun in case he needed to put it out of its misery.

There was no need.  The deer was very dead, and the coyotes had already been at it.  (I'll spare you that angle.)  We're hoping it broke its neck and died quickly.  It makes us sick that such a beautiful creature died in such a way.

The deer must not have jumped high enough to clear the fence, and one hind leg caught in the barbed wire.  Its foot hooked back through the fence wire, and Herb had a hard time getting it off.

He didn't want our dogs eating the rotting meat, so he drove it deep into the hunting preserve to leave it for God's natural garbage crew, the coyotes and vultures.

This is one reason I hate barbed wire.  This is the second time we've found a deer dead and hanging from barbed wire.

The main reason I hate it is that it's deadly for horses, too.  But Herb is the fence builder and he says without it, the horses lean over the fences to graze and stretch them.  That's true, and I sympathize with having to repair good fence.  But I've called a vet for a horse that got tangled in barbed wire, and it's a terrible sight--and I was lucky no permanent damage was done.

Personally, I'd vote for hot wires along the insides of the fences, but that would necessitate a dozen solar chargers since we don't have electric out by the pastures.  I guess for now we'll just have to hope the deer jump higher and the horses behave themselves.