Hunter butchers deer in front of school, offers decent excuse

A Pennsylvania hunter has upset some of his neighbors by hanging a deer from a tree outside his home and butchering the carcass in front of a middle school.

A Pennsylvania hunter has upset some of his neighbors by hanging a deer from a tree outside his home and butchering the carcass in front of a middle school.

“I got a grandchild just down the street, and I think it would really upset him to see a gutted deer hanging upside down in a front yard,” Gene James told CBS Pittsburgh.

The story mentions that other neighbors also expressed anger, but does not identify them.

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One neighbor, Jodi Good, said, “My dad and my brothers are hunters, so I have no problem with it.”

Perhaps surprisingly, Lucas Smith, the hunter who lives across from Greensburg Salem Middle School, might have been the most upset of all.

Smith, who was processing the deer he bagged last week, told CBS Pittsburgh: “I feel terrible doing it in front of the school [but] this is where I live. I have no other choice.

“I have no other trees in my yard. If I did, I’d be doing it there.”

The report did not include input from faculty or students.

–White-tailed deer image courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Deer hunter arrested after family’s pet horse is shot

An arrest has been made in the case involving a Virginia deer hunter suspected of shooting a family’s pet horse.

An arrest has been made in the case involving a Virginia deer hunter suspected of shooting a family’s pet horse.

Jeffrey Mayo, of Mineral, was charged with reckless handling of a firearm and discharging a firearm within 100 yards of an occupied dwelling, the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday.

“It was determined through the investigation that the suspect was hunting and had fired three shots at a deer while it was running,” the agency stated in a news release.

ABC 8 News reports that the 24-year-old quarter horse, named Penny, suffered wounds to her chest and lung during the Nov. 27 incident in Ashland.

Alexander Gaudino, Penny’s caretaker, said that after seeing the horse bleeding from her side he initially thought she had been injured by barbed wire. “We walked over there and she wouldn’t move; we were in complete shock,” Gaudino said.

A GoFundMe page was created two days later, with Kim Boyd Gaudino writing, “Our family pet of 20 years was shot in the yard the night before Thanksgiving. We are asking for help with medical expenses.”

On Nov. 30 the post was updated to reveal that Penny was “fighting to live” but the next day Penny was said to be “doing amazing well.”

Penny, who received care from the family’s veterinarian, has since recovered.

The investigation was conducted in conjunction with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

–Images showing Penny during her recovery are courtesy of the Gaudino family