PORT ANGELES – Heather Williams awoke the day after Christmas to the remains of a dead baby deer in her yard.
She looked out her kitchen window, and there it lay, 10 feet from the west side of her home, on Black Diamond Road south of Port Angeles.
“It was not even a yearling, probably 4 or 5 months old,” she said Tuesday afternoon.
“It hadn’t been hit by a car. It was skinned out. It was skin and a couple of legs in my yard.”
It’s nothing new to Williams, her husband, Chris, and their children, 3-year-old Kyleigh and 5-year-old Chris.
“Hunting season started toward the end of October,” Williams said.
“Since then, almost every day, I’m picking up bones or hide or chunks of meat. Since then, I’ve been putting bones in the (trash bin) almost every day.”
Williams’ husband hunts, and her brother, too.
So the 27-year-old stay-at-home mom, who’s lived in the house three years, doesn’t blame most who engage in the sport.
Her beef is with those who butcher their animals and dispose of parts they don’t use near homes like hers instead of more remote areas.
“My problem is that people are being inconsiderate and just dumping the animals,” Williams said.
She doesn’t believe they trespass on her property, but she does believe they knowingly leave remains within 200 yards of her home and easy carrying distance for Dakota, her dog.
That’s who she says scatters bones and smaller remains in her yard – and what was left of the baby deer, whose resting place quickly became the trash bin.
The family black lab drags the trophies home like dogs do, Williams said.
But that still proves hunters are dumping carcasses too close to home, she said.
And she’s not just talking bones.
“My dog is bringing home big old chunks of meat, not chewed off, just cut off and dumped up there.
“To me, if someone went through the effort to go out and shoot an elk, they would not just dump all the meat. It’s just not right. It’s disrespectful to the animals.”
