Sad, sad day...

[74cj5]

Friday Afternoon, I was headed north-bound on 215 in Salt Lake City just passed the turn-off for Big Cotton-Wood Canyon when I lost all hope in mankind....

There were three dead deer within about 100 yards of eachother. Not entirely uncommon for this area, but these were different. It was very obvoius that antlers had been sawn off of each of them! I've gone over the situation many times since then, and can't figure out any explination besides poaching, and dumping the bodies as road-kill. Would somebody out there please tell me that there is another explanation, and restore my hope in mankind.

I often go spotting in the area to see deer in thier winter range (which is now composed of mainly million dollar back yards...), and know that there are a few big bucks that frequent the area, or at least there were...

 

[Bigbuck9]

A lot of times people will saw the antlers off of larger deer killed by vehicular collisions. However 3 within a hundred yards of each other is pretty fishy. I would call the game and fish and let them handle it. It looks like a poaching incident as you describe it.

 

[flight]

I heard sometimes the DWR will take off the antlers from road kill bucks before they have someone come and pick them up, because some people dont understand and will stop and cut the antlers off on themselves thinking it's the buck is dead anyway no big deal.