02-02-2011, 06:57 AM
IOWA
Police are investigating an incident involving two deer hunters who left a bloody mess in a Bettendorf residential neighborhood, leading one of the neighbors to question whether the city should allow deer hunting within its limits.
Sarah Hayden, a member of the city’s deer hunting committee and an opponent of allowing deer hunting near residential areas, said two men tracked a deer they had shot Saturday through her yard and into the yard of her neighbor, where they killed the wounded deer.
She said the men then dragged the deer through the neighborhood to a creek near her home, where they dressed it and left the entrails in the creek. The nearby area is an approved bow hunting area.
Hayden said she was upset that the men didn’t clean up the trail of blood they left by dragging the deer through the neighborhood or notify property owners that they were tracking a deer through their yards.
“They just got their deer and left,” she said.
Hayden said there are small children in the neighborhood who should not have to look at a bloody mess or a deer with an arrow sticking out of it.
She said she did not see any boot prints in the snow near the deer stand, indicating no one had been in it recently. The city’s deer hunting ordinance requires hunters to fire from an elevated position. Changes approved last summer also require hunters to pass a proficiency test every year and to put their names and phone numbers on their tree stands.
Hayden said leaving the deer’s entrails in the creek also violated the city’s ordinance, and she thinks that practice may be contributing to recent problems with coyotes in the neighborhood.
The blood remained in the neighborhood until Monday morning, when a city crew shoveled away the bloody snow.
Bettendorf Police Chief Phil Redington said Monday he is investigating whether the hunters violated the city’s deer hunting ordinance. He said although city ordinance allows deer hunters to track a wounded deer through residential property, hunters are expected to act appropriately.
Police are investigating an incident involving two deer hunters who left a bloody mess in a Bettendorf residential neighborhood, leading one of the neighbors to question whether the city should allow deer hunting within its limits.
Sarah Hayden, a member of the city’s deer hunting committee and an opponent of allowing deer hunting near residential areas, said two men tracked a deer they had shot Saturday through her yard and into the yard of her neighbor, where they killed the wounded deer.
She said the men then dragged the deer through the neighborhood to a creek near her home, where they dressed it and left the entrails in the creek. The nearby area is an approved bow hunting area.
Hayden said she was upset that the men didn’t clean up the trail of blood they left by dragging the deer through the neighborhood or notify property owners that they were tracking a deer through their yards.
“They just got their deer and left,” she said.
Hayden said there are small children in the neighborhood who should not have to look at a bloody mess or a deer with an arrow sticking out of it.
She said she did not see any boot prints in the snow near the deer stand, indicating no one had been in it recently. The city’s deer hunting ordinance requires hunters to fire from an elevated position. Changes approved last summer also require hunters to pass a proficiency test every year and to put their names and phone numbers on their tree stands.
Hayden said leaving the deer’s entrails in the creek also violated the city’s ordinance, and she thinks that practice may be contributing to recent problems with coyotes in the neighborhood.
The blood remained in the neighborhood until Monday morning, when a city crew shoveled away the bloody snow.
Bettendorf Police Chief Phil Redington said Monday he is investigating whether the hunters violated the city’s deer hunting ordinance. He said although city ordinance allows deer hunters to track a wounded deer through residential property, hunters are expected to act appropriately.