Oh, Dear

I have hired a trainer to help me with the horses. We recently took them on a trail ride. The trails were covered with leaves and it was difficult to see what the footing would be like. There were a lot of rocks on the trail and they were narrow with a steep fall off. A little scary. Scary for me. The horses did great. There was a little hesitancy going through the two large rocks on either side of the trail at the beginning, but after that they did great.

The weird part was at the end. At the edge of the parking lot, I could see a part of a deer head with the antlers attached. I went over to see, thinking it was a road kill that someone had moved off the road. I even considered taking an antler as that is a favorite dog treat of RJ's. No, we don't kill deer for that, but antlers are shed every year and RJ has found and loved them in the past.

When I got closer the smell was bad and I could see multiple carcasses in varying stages of decomposition. I saw everything from some neck bones to the entire front of a deer. The only parts missing were the tenderloins and the haunches. There was a bag of intestines. There was even a decomposing bear head and a skinless body. Yuck.

So I guess there are some hunters that only want a few parts of the animals they hunt. Maybe just a pelt or a small portion of meat. Then they can't be bothered to dispose of that which they don't want properly. Perhaps they want to leave the rest for scavengers, but I wouldn't think it a good idea to attract large carnivores to a place where people hike or ride horses.

I am not a hunter, so maybe those of you that are can tell me the way this is supposed to work. Should you bury a carcass? Or is leaving it in a pile of others the proper thing to do?