I agree, it makes me sick too. I don't understand people either any more ... there are a lot of sick people out there.

This Spring I was driving down my rural road to work and saw something out of the corner of my eye, in the ditch. I stopped and backed up, it was a doe. Someone had clipped her as they drove down the road, and kept going. She was lying in the ditch with a broken leg ...

I was so angry! I called my neighbor, who called the sherriff ... they came out and put her out of her misery. I don't understand how you let an animal suffer, but people do all over the place.

I just try to believe that there are more good people out there than bad ... maybe I'm naive ....

That is pretty sick, and I'm all for hunting, don't care if it's bambi or not, but to waste it like that, NOT OK. Maybe they didn't hit it properly and weren't able to track it, but in that case, if they can't take stop a deer in its tracks with one, maybe 2 shots, they should not be shooting guns. I have absolutely no qualms about hunting or butchering animals for food, but that's inhumane.
This kind of thing is more likely to happen to an inexperienced bow hunter as the animals tend to take longer to bleed out and die when shot with an arrow, but in general the bow hunting community members tend to be more responsible and track down their prey properly. Still if it's out of season that would be ... um illegal. Oh wait, that word doesn't mean anything anymore in the US.

Something similar happened about ten years ago. I was on my way to the chicken coop to feed and heard beagles whooping and then a loud bang. It was close enough that I could smell the sulfur of the gunsmoke (I used to hunt, I know what it smells like). And there are five guys behind beagles with shotguns and I assume light loads in them more suited to rabbit than deer. Well, they'd just flushed a deer (again out of season) so they plugged her. I saw her run off and they looked up to see me and know they'd been 'outed'. So, of course they were playing dumb and didn't finish her off. She ran across the road, nearly wrecking a car as she ran in front of it and my friend who has a farm across the road found her body days later curled up in a culvert where she hid until she bled to death or died from shock.

The 'great hunters' of course disappeared immediately. I talked to the farmer who owned the land adjacent and he rarely let anyone hunt it, but made an exception. When I let him know what kind of people were hunting it, I can guarantee you they never hunted it again. When the opportunity arose, I bought that land so now I have control. But, that doesn't stop people evidently.

I know locations vary, but fish and game and the local sheriff around here will seriously go after anyone who is hunting out of season.

So I would have reported the dead deer. If it had been a slow news night (and it's always a slow news night around here ), it might have gotten a mention on the local news, with a request for anyone with any knowledge to call and report the poacher.

It's just not done and there is a lot of peer pressure to comply with conservation measures.

Big city folks and out-of-staters are different. Some of them are good hunters, some are not. Owning land won't keep the bad ones out. They just cut fences and trespass.

I called the game warden yesterday morning. Want to get him before bow season opens and he gets swamped. He returned the call this morning, but was out of range on his mobile and we kept fading. He was to have called back when he got in range, but hasn't yet. I'm not letting this one drop. The two fawns showed up two days in a row after the doe disappeared and before I found her carcass. But I heard more shots and haven't seen them since. I'm not going to let this drop. I imagine if someone went looking they'd find two small carcasses not too far from the doe. I can't trespass to go looking, but an officer could gain access.

I would defiantly be on the phone with the Sheriff immediately if you don't get a concerned response tell them tell them your Husband is loading up to go poacher hunting

It is unheard of in this area for poaching to go unpunished deer season and gun ownership are a priority to a majority of people here and will turn a poacher in a heartbeat if not take the matter in there own hands