Colorado Division of Wildlife officers continued their pursuit of a wounded doe in Elbert County Wednesday, but weren’t able to get close enough to catch or tranquilize the animal.
The animal has an arrow through its nose, throat and neck, after an archer’s shot failed to bring it down. The doe, traveling in a herd, is nursing a fawn.
“We don’t know how long she’s been injured, but she’s pretty mobile,” said Jennifer Churchill, the hunter agency’s spokeswoman. “Our officers just haven’t been able to get close enough.”
Deer are legal game and the fall bow season is still in effect in Elbert County.
“We just don’t know what happened,” she said. “And we probably won’t unless someone comes forward and said they did it.”
The national Animal Rights Coalition, which opposes bowhunting, argues a hunter must be within 30 yards to have a good chance of a clean kill and 54 percent of hit animals escape wounded, which activists characterize as animal torture.
A study quoted by Linda Hatfield, executive director of Help Our Wolves Live, or HOWL, claims that an arrow “must cut major blood vessels, thoracic organs, or the neurological center to cause a quick death.”
Paul Navarre, the 2,500-member Colorado Bowhunters Association’s liason to the Division of Wildlife board, said the issue, notably the photo of the injured deer, is being sensationalized.
Colorado has a population of about 600,000 deer, and licensed bowhunters kill about 5,000 a year in the state.
Studies Navarre is familiar with indicate about 10 percent of wounded deer escape their hunter.
“It’s very unfortunate,” he said. “But things happen that all of us wish hadn’t happened, but how often do you drive by and see a deer in the ditch hit by a car? That’s unfortunate, too.
“How many deer are mauled by mountain lions and wander off to die? The thing is, all these animals are consumed. It’s my experience that very few deer wander away, but when they do, they’re are quickly absorbed by nature, other animals consume the carcass. Nothing is wasted.”
