BAY ESTATES–Earlier this week, residents of Bay Estates pulled a dead doe from the water—the apparent victim of poaching.
She was still a nursing mother and had died very recently, as she was still warm. On closer examination, residents found a hole in her side, the size of a .22 calibre bullet.
A .22 calibre bullet, whether shooting in-season or as in this case, illegally, is almost guaranteed not to kill the animal but to mortally wound it and cause it great pain and distress.
The following night another resident discovered the carcass of a young deer, which some suspect could be the found doe’s fawn. It too was on the shoreline, near where the doe had been found, but had been there at least a day as it had been somewhat scavenged.
A resident who lives nearby and leaves for work very early in the morning reports that on both days, gunshots were heard in the bush behind the house.
“A number of the residents of Bay Estates are themselves hunters and even those who could never actually shoot a deer know that hunting is necessary to keep the deer population from exploding,” a concerned Bay Estates resident told The Expositor, “but this deplorable waste is really despicable, as are the poachers who slink about in the darkness of early morning with a weapon that doesn’t even provide a quick end for the poor deer.”
