We live on Salt Spring Island, a small rural community situated off Vancouver Island where people hunt deer when in season. But the following sad tale I want to share applies to any part of the world where people hunt animals for meat or sport.
In late October, we awoke to find a grotesquely injured deer outside our front door. The creature stood there with the lower half of its face blown off, with exposed jawbone fragments and red raw wounds so severe that it was clearly unable to eat or drink. Its white tongue was hanging out and, with no lower jaw to support it; the animal was slowly dehydrating and starving to death.
You see, this creature, a young buck, was a frequent visitor to the property. It would often munch the birdseed and/or drink from one of the many fountains on the property. I think it felt safe on the land as generally we are quiet people, we don’t have a dog; we drive slowly on the property so not to disturb the animals and don't use a lot of power tools. As a result we have quite a variety of regular animal visitors including owls, woodpeckers, raccoons, squirrels, deer and even the odd rat.
We knew, as much as one can, this young, healthy wild animal and, in some ways loved it. It was a gentle creature that felt happy enough around us to sleep in the garden outside the front door. It was a magnificent creature in perfect health that should have grown to be a beautiful strong mature buck.
When we first saw the extent of its injuries and how it attempted to drink from the water fountain, banging its shattered face against the ceramic bowl and constantly recoiling in agony, it was unbearable to watch. With such extensive injuries there was no way for the animal to get the sustenance it so desperately needed to survive.
I am writing this letter to the hunters of the world because this suffering broken animal was the unfortunate victim of poor marksmanship. To the hunter who shot the deer, as an expert hunter or as an amateur, we would say that we are all human and make mistakes, but the extent of the deer’s injuries suggests you were close enough to know that you hit this animal and must have known that you didn't kill it. We cannot understand why you didn't alert people in the community that could have helped (via the police, local wildlife centre, SPCA, newspaper, radio and/or notify your neighbors). You should have told someone that there was a severely injured animal in agonizing pain in the area needing assistance.
There is no shame in being human and making mistakes, though we do believe that attempting to shoot an animal but only fatally injuring it and then leaving the creature to die a slow painful death is a shameful act.
Thankfully, we live in a community where there are a lot of people willing to help an injured animal in distress. We have a good group of neighbors, an amazing Wildlife Natural Care Centre (that works extremely diligently to help wild animals in distress), and we also are fortune to have a compassionate and vigilant police force that were able to assist, after numerous visits to the property, with putting the animal out of its misery.
However, I find myself unable to sleep as I continue to mull over, again and again, why the hunter who shot this animal didn’t seek help and assistance? There are, we assure you, as we experienced it directly, a large community of people on the island who, without judgment, would have attempted to help you and the animal. I imagine this is the same in almost all communities around the world.
As a hunter you have an obligation to ensure the animal dies a clean, decent, quick and respectful death. If something should go amiss, please ask the community for assistance and they will respond.
On a more local and personal level, to the Salt Spring Island hunter who fatally injured this animal and left it to die, I can’t help but wonder if you have already forgotten about this experience. However, we want to be very clear that seeing the state of this shattered animal and dealing with it for two days is something we will never forget and, although we were more than willing to help an animal in distress, we did not deserve the responsibility of the bloody dying mess you left on our doorstep.
Valerie Williams is a writer living on Salt Spring Island.
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