Behind the Badge - Locked Up
Locked up
District Game Warden Gage Muench
Earlier this fall, I received a state radio call regarding a landowner who had two white-tailed bucks with antlers locked together in his yard. I called the landowner and started heading towards the property.
Upon arriving, I located the bucks behind a set of grain bins on the edge of the yard. It was obvious the smaller of the two did not have much life left in it. I felt out the situation to determine the appropriate tool for separating them.
They would allow me to get within a few feet before the larger buck would move erratically and drag the pair away. It became evident using a Sawzall to separate the antlers was not going to be an option.
I walked back to my patrol vehicle and grabbed my duty shotgun. I informed the landowner I was going to separate the bucks by shooting part of an antler off with a slug.
After returning to the bucks, I identified a section of antler that was preventing them from separating. I hit the intersection of the smaller buck’s main beam and a tine on its antler. The antler shattered and the tine broke free.
There was a quick struggle, and the bucks were able to separate. The larger of the two ran across the bean field to a nearby tree belt as if nothing had happened. The smaller of the two bucks collapsed in the field. It was shaking and breathing shallowly.
I was afraid the buck would inevitably need to be put down. However, I wanted to give it some time to recover before making the final determination.
I collected the broken antler and met the landowner back at the house. The landowner informed me his grandson had been hunting these two bucks all fall. I gave the landowner the antler tine that had been shot off. The landowner told me he had plans of turning it into a knife handle for his grandson.
I explained the status of the smaller buck to the landowner. I told him I would come back later in the day to check on the buck. The landowner inquired about a salvage tag to utilize the meat from the buck if it ultimately needed to be put down. I told him I would get a salvage tag issued and take care of field dressing the buck if he was not around.
A few hours later I returned to the buck’s location. It had not moved from where I left it earlier in the day. The buck’s health had not improved and, if anything, appeared to be worse. I made the determination that the ethical thing to do was dispatch the buck with my sidearm.
After doing so, I tagged the buck with a salvage tag and field dressed it for the landowner. I then drug the buck into the shade of a nearby outbuilding. The buck was left there for the landowner to collect and process after work.
It is never enjoyable putting down injured animals, but it is part of the job. The silver lining here was the one buck being freed in a healthy state and the second utilized by the landowner’s family. It could have been a very different outcome had the bucks became entangled in a more secluded area.