Ever shot a diseased or animal you wouldn't eat?

[Steve in Canton]

[Steve in Canton]

7 point killed in suburb of Cleveland, had been running around the property that I hunt for 2 years like this and was chasing a doe when I killed him.  When we field dressed the buck the meat had a stronger than normal smell to it and their was puss throughout the cavity so we called the game warden and he had us discard the meat.

[buckracks7]

Killed a turkey with a black mass in it's breast. I assumed it was cancer.

Saw a deer with green puss in it's hind quarters, and what looked like bites. I guessed coyotes were after it.

[joevan125]

I shot a buck back in 1987 while in college and when i got to him i could smell guts really bad.

When i dressed him i found 22 rifle shells all in him.

He had been shot in the stomach and in other places but that stomach wound was terrible.

I cant believe he was still able to get around.

[lt-m-grow]

I had one bad - really bad - tasting buck that I tossed out once.  I have no idea why but I had eaten enough venison to know that something was not right.  

Also, for folks that shoot multiple deer in a year - it is a good idea to mark the meat packages somehow before before they go into the freezer of which deer the package came from just in case what happened to me happens to you.

That way you don't have to toss out all you packages.

[rabbit_buster]

several years back i killed a squirrel, and when i cut open his body cavity all his guts (heart and lungs included) were neon yellow, and it was pretty rank. so i put a big rock on him...

[rabbit_buster]

good idea lt-m-grow, never thought of it......

[joe ashton]

I have a friend that shot an old elk.  It hair was slipping and smelled gross.  The packing plant would not let it in and the DOW issued him a second license...

[xtrema312]

I shot a button buck a few years ago that I found injured without functional back legs.  After I shot it I noticed it was foaming at the mouth.  I couldn’t find physical damage so then I was not sure if it was injured or sick so I didn't eat it.  

I shot an injured doe the year before that.  She had a bad leg.  Once I got her skinned out I found the one hind quarter was basically skin and bone.  I had to toss that whole quarter away because there was hardly any meat on it at all.  The rest of her was very strong tasting and really tough.  Fortunately I mark all my meat for the year and deer number so I just tossed it out.  I have a hard time not shooting an injured deer, but next time I find major muscle waste from an old wound I am not sure I will go to the trouble to process it unless I cut out some and try it first.

[straitera]

This year my hunt bud shot a 6 point with bad hindquarter He said it was diseased and cut off around the entire quarter & discarded it. He ate the rest. He said the hide was mangy & full of tumors.

Killed a nut dragging boar hog a few years back so nasty I couldn't eat it. BBQ'd it then took it to work where it disappeared. I cringed watching folks eat it.

[LKH]

Idaho, 1975.  Heard a shot where my friend was and drove down the grownover logging trail to pick him up.  Big buck was laying flat in the road.  As I drove up, it raised it's head and then put it back down.  I got the gun out and killed it w/shot to neck.

Turned out buddy hadn't shot it and you could see the rib structure thru the hide.  Gutted it and you could see the pellets in the colon.
Basically just skin and bone. I left it.

Called the game warden, Left message about what I had done and where it was.  I was taking wildlife course at the U of ID and knew they would be interested.

Next day he showed up at camp with the deer and wanted me to tag it.  Ugly confrontation.  I told him to write me up if he thought he could get a jury to convict me of anything.  He backed off, started to drive away, stopped and backed up to ask me if I wanted the 5x6 rack.  I told him to get out of my camp.

About 6 months later I heard he got fired. Guess I wasn't the only person he got crosswise with.

He never turned the deer over to the University.

[reddogge]

I recovered a buck that I had hit a little far back and we put it to bed at dark.  We came back the next day and it was dead, dressed it and tagged it.  When I butchered it the meat stunk so bad it almost gagged me.  Smelled like a barnyard.  The meat smelled the same way.  I threw it all away.

It's getting near dinner time and I'm losing my appetite reading this thread.

[T Lail]

I have shot rabbits and squirrels that have white spots on their livers.....when I kill one like that it goes to the coyotes......

[moose eye levi]

This year I shot a buck found some kinda worm up in the hind quarter in the back leg of it and my ag. teacher found the same kind of worm in one of his deer took it into the biology teacher and he couldent identify it.

[illianabowhntr67]

My buddy killed a doe a couple years ago.When we were skinning her she smelled really foul.There was large pockets of puss all along her back from some sort of injury.She became coyote food.

[Brian Krebs]

lt-m-grow  often if you turn your deer over to a game processor you will not get your deer meat back. Some processors will cut YOUR deer up and give you back YOUR deer meat.
 Some though just weigh the deer; and give you the percent of meat normally you would get from a deer that size. They do not care if you get your deer or not.
 They will then take any left over meat and toss it into a 55 gallon drum. That drum goes to the sausage making company; and if you ordered sausage- it is from every ones deer or elk.
  A good game processor will take your deer; cut it up - take the meat that is left over; and make hamburger or sausage from it and it alone.
 These guys are worth their weight in gold.

 It is why I do all my own processing.

I shot a deer once that had mange; and I was given another tag.

 With rabbits ; a liver that is yellowish and sickly looking indicates disease- toss it. But white spots are fat deposits - if the liver is red and healthy looking; the white spots are not an indicator of disease in and of themselves.
 Probably a fatter - healthier rabbit; and one that will be great in the pan.

Cooking a diseased rabbit will kill the disease; you are in most danger when cleaning it. Its really best to take some rubber gloves and check the liver before adding it to the bag. Don't get the disease off a glove by using it over and over- just use it once and put it in a plastic bag to dispose of it later properly.

 Infections usually will make the whole animal unpalatable.

 Good to see we take out the weak and diseased from the herd.

[sagebrush]

Wow knd2970 that is a gross looking turkey. I wouldn't eat it either. I shot a small buck one time that had a weird growth in it's heart. The growth partially blocked the blood flow. The deer acted real slow when I was watching it before I shot it. Gary

[lpcjon2]

My first duck ,well I thought it was a duck turned out to be a coot.It had some green crap coming out of its mouth.Nothing but fertilizer now,that was when I was 16 yo.  

[Big Ed]

About ten years ago I shot a decent seven point that had a infection or "Gang green" It had some infection in the loins and hind quarters. It had previously been shot with a .22 below the ear. I put my tag on the deer and called the Game Commission. I had a Warden come out and offer another tag, I declined and was happy to have harvested the buck and also to put him out of his soon due misery. Big Ed

[hayslope]

Shot a cow elk in Colorado in the late 80s.  We quartered her and packed her out with horses.  When we got back to my buddy's ranch, we hung the quarters in a run-in shed and noticed a rather large lump on one of her shoulders.  Externally, it did'nt look like anything nasty.  I made the butcher aware of it.  He said it seemed to be some kind of tumor.  To be on the safe side, he ended up throwing most of the shoulder away. The rest of the meat was fine....thankfully.