Bad way to die...

[bozara]

In the west we see a lot of mulies, and in this case, elk that get a leg caught between the top strand of a barb wire fence and the second or third.  Coyotes and now wolves have an easy, live meal.

[reddogge]

Natures is tough.

[xtrema312]

I found a doe on our place this last year like that.  It was right up over a little hill not 50 yd. from the living quarters in the barn out on the farm.  unfortunately we never knew it was there until it was too late.

[Mr.Vic]

Many years ago there was a 300 pound or more hunter trailing a deer he had shot. Pretty soon he came upon a barb wire fence and layed his bow down to cross it. About half way across he slipped and ended up like the leg in your photo. How? Who knows. The weight of him prevented him from having much luck in just getting out. Good thing he had multi pliers on his belt and could cut the wire. My left leg always starts to quiver when we come up to those fences again.

[slivrslingr]

Growing up in Utah I saw lots of those.  Many of the fences could likely be taken down and save a lot of deer and elk from an ugly and truly cruel death.

[Encino Man]

I found a White Tail doe's head and cape hung in a fence just like that. It looks like she was going through and was spooked, jumped and her body went over and twisted the wire.

[twostrings]

Those stories have made me think twice about how careful I am when crossing a fence. Thanks.

[calgarychef]

I was folowing a young moose down a road and he jumped over a fence and wouldn't you know it the poor bugger got caught.  It was a heck of a pickle for both of us, I wanted to get in and help him out but with all the flailing I'd have been injured for sure.  Luckily he got himself out within a minute or so.

[yaderehey]

A buddy and I roaming the woods when we were about the age of 13 or so came across a fine looking bloodhound that had gotten himself in this same pickle.  It was to late to help the dog but we were able to notify the owners from the info on the dogs collar.  They were sad of course but grateful to know why he never came home.

[flatlander37]

My dad always said that nature is crueler than society.

[homerdave]

uh... i have to point out guys... barbed wire ain't natural, nohow.
nature just is, nothing cruel, just the way it is.
barbed wire now, that can be cruel....

[Brian Krebs]

I have spent winters fixing the fence every night because of elk knocking it down; and getting stuck in it.

 What I have seen happen many many times; is that the elk move in a herd; a tight herd ; and when they come up to a fence- the first ones; and the ones behind them in a declining percent- jump the fence.
 If there are 50 or 100 or more elk in the herd; and they come across a fence- the last of the bunch usually have no idea the ones in front are jumping.
 So they run into the fence; and get tangled up in it.

For safety purposes- when an elk is hung up; cut the fence & figure out a way to move quickly to a safe spot.

I got stomped really good after the wire around a spike bulls neck-  came to the end; and the body of the elk flipped around and knocked me into the elks ability to reach me.

[Bear]

To those of you who say nature is tough, barbed wire ain't nature.

[Shedrock]

It happens alot. I carry a fencing pliers in my truck, and have saved one antelope, and two deer. I have seen around 100 elk, deer, and antelope dead in fences over the years. I even saw a coyote that died that way. It would be a bad way to go.  :(

[Clinglish]

In australia were Im from you very rarely see a fence that is all barbwire like the one in the pic . Most of the time we use plain wire with a barb on top  or ringlock .

[joevan125]

When i was in college me and my friend found a doe stuck in a fence and she was still alive but we had to finish her off.

The ground around her looked liked someone had took a plow to the ground, she had really been struggling for a while.

Its something i will never forget and i have never seen anything else like it in the last 24yrs of hunting.

[Mudd]

My mind was taken immediately back to a very popular wildlife photographers book on North American Whitetail Deer. I'm sorry that I can't remember either the name of the book or author.

Anyway it had a good portion of the book devoted to what bad things can happen to deer just because they can.
 
I still have some of those images stuck in my brain.(shiver) It was a real eye opener to see the graphic evidence of just how awful(by our standards) nature can be.

The truth is without us applying our emotions to the situation, there aren't any in nature.(or barbed wire)

While I don't like experiencing any of those feelings personally, I thank God I have them! They are what separate me from the "senseless killers".IMHO

I hope I didn't get too far off track.

God bless,Mudd

[Ragnarok Forge]

I have a buddy who lets me hunt his property where he runs cattle. He is always complaining about elk ruining his cattle fence.  Nice thing is I get to hunt since he wants the elk numbers reduced.  Gotta love that part.  He is always trying to get elk free from his fence that are caught this way.

[S C Mercer]

Same thing would happen to humans if we lived in the forest still..   I can distinctly remember some of the accidents that happened while running patrol operations in the USMC.  I remember a guy in our patrol in the jungles of Okinawa falling off a steep cliff in the dark.  He screamed for quite a while till we got down to him..  Everything from sticks through the eyes, broken legs, broken ankles, bitten by poisonous snakes, etc, occured during those days.  Crap happens to all species while living in the natural world.  Steve

[bofish-IL]

In my bowhunting years I have found two dead doe's hung up in a woven wire fence. I watched a young fawn once that ran into the fence full speed. She did this about a dozen times after it's mother had jumped the fence. I thought it was going to kill it's self before it finally found a hole.

I also cut a young buck out of a fence one morning. I had to get on the opposite side of the fence, otherwise it would of kicked me to death. It just had it's antlers wound up in the fence.