# My neighbors are doing this; is it illegal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 9, 2004, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829 "2004-11-09T13:47:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/21 "2004-11-10T02:48:01Z")
> [@Anise](#): > > Maybe it rose from the dead. I don’t know. :dubious: > I’m sorry about the non-tawdriness of the thread, btw. Maybe if we changed it to “I saw my neighbors having sex with a deer in the back yard at three a.m. for three nights running now…” Actually, that _would_ be legal here in TN. Seriously. They had a case in Murfreesboro where they caught a guy having sex with a horse, and had to charge him with animal cruelty because there was no law against bestiality. So if they were banging a dead deer… ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/22 "2004-11-10T04:11:20Z")
> [@Dooku](#): > > No deer hunter would leave their prize laying on the ground in their back yard for two days. Even if it’s been field dressed already (OP didn’t specify) it would go straight into a freezer. Two days of it laying on the ground and all the venison’s ruined, field dressed or not. That’s not entirely true. Laying on the ground, probably not, but depending on the weather (under 40F or thereabouts) it’s not at all unusal to leave a deer hanging up outside for a day or a week. It would be field dressed and the scent glands removed before, and skinned at some point in that week. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/23 "2004-11-10T04:23:26Z")
> [@Wikkit](#): > > That’s not entirely true. Laying on the ground, probably not, but depending on the weather (under 40F or thereabouts) it’s not at all unusal to leave a deer hanging up outside for a day or a week. It would be field dressed and the scent glands removed before, and skinned at some point in that week. Well, it’s been up in the 60s during the day for the past few days, so Bambi was probably pretty ripe. ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/24 "2004-11-10T05:01:46Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > Well, it’s been up in the 60s during the day for the past few days, so Bambi was probably pretty ripe. Gallatin gelatin? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/25 "2004-11-10T05:59:09Z")
You missed one helluva Christmas card cover opportunity. I would have been down there so fast with a Santa hat and enthusiastic “thumbs up” sign. ---
**Author:** ![Anise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anise/32/21721_2.png) [@Anise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anise)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/26 "2004-11-10T06:01:43Z")
> [@Cat Fight](#): > > You missed one helluva Christmas card cover opportunity. I would have been down there so fast with a Santa hat and enthusiastic “thumbs up” sign. Ohhhh…that’s okay. 😛 What I still wonder about, though, is how it got there. Did the neighbors bring it back and leave it there? This is the MIDDLE of Nashville; where could it have COME from? I guess it’s not quite as weird as finding a dead deer in the middle of midtown Manhattan, but still… ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/27 "2004-11-10T06:40:54Z")
> [@Boyo Jim](#): > > Another bit of deer trivia. Nearly 1 in 6 auto accidents in WI involve deer. IMO, a pretty astounding number, given there are hardly any deer in Milwukee. Ha! One afternoon a few winters ago, my mother looked out into the backyard of her Milwaukee home and saw four does in the lilac bushes. Recently a deer almost collided with a vehicle she was in a few blocks from her house. And just within the last few days, a friend’s car struck and killed a faun. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Girl)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/28 "2004-11-10T06:44:24Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > Actually, that _would_ be legal here in TN. Seriously. They had a case in Murfreesboro where they caught a guy having sex with a horse, and had to charge him with animal cruelty because there was no law against bestiality. So if they were banging a dead deer… Don’t s’pose they asked the horse if s/he thought it was cruel, huh? “Neeighh, officer. I wouldn’t say it was cruel. Did you see that guy’s wanker? I wasn’t exactly planning on lighting up a smoke afterward.” ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/29 "2004-11-10T07:31:57Z")
Easily explained. 😃 Mr. Hotshot, or let’s say Hotshot Jr, takes a gun out and gets a deer. The Hotshot family has no tradition of hunting, and Jr grew up watching TV, and expects the scene to cut from “Bang!” to a tasty dinner. So by the time Jr has finished dragging the carcass to the car, and from the car to the yard, he feels he has already done more work than he expected, and tells Mrs. Hotshot that he wants venison steak for dinner tonight. Mrs. Hotshot just says butchering is men’s work, and goes on doing what she’s doing. Young Hotshot isn’t going to listen to what a woman tells him. So after that the deer just lies there till the stink and flies motivate someone sufficiently…Did the deer disappear on garbage pickup day, by any chance? ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/30 "2004-11-10T08:02:22Z")
Show the deer to the kids and explain to them that due to an undiagnosed reindeer epidemic Santa won’t be coming this year. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/31 "2004-11-10T10:26:59Z")
> [@Boyo Jim](#): > > A little dead deer trivia: not too long agon in WI we passed a law so if you hit and kill a deer with an _airplane_, you can keep the deer. I’m down in Indiana, not Wisconsin, but our local airport has a deer vs. airplane incident about every 2 years. Given the cost of repairs to the airplane you _should_ be able to keep what’s left of the deer because for sure you won’t be able to afford prime rib for awhile. ---
**Author:** ![MisterThyristor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@MisterThyristor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MisterThyristor)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/32 "2004-11-10T11:13:47Z")
I don’t see what would be so unusual about a deer in metro Nashville. We have had deer trapped in a parking garage in the middle of downtown Cleveland. And as someone else mentioned, it could have been shot and travelled quite a ways from its usual territory. ---
**Author:** ![Greywolf73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/33 "2004-11-10T12:57:36Z")
I have no useful advice for dealing with a dead deer in the yard but I can’t pass up the chance to post a link to the infamous [Deer in Elk](http://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/dogsinelk.html#dogs) tale. ---
**Author:** ![Greywolf73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/34 "2004-11-10T12:58:42Z")
Errr, that should read DOGS in Elk… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/35 "2004-11-11T08:55:10Z")
> [@Anise](#): > > Ohhhh…that’s okay. 😛 > What I still wonder about, though, is how it got there. Did the neighbors bring it back and leave it there? This is the MIDDLE of Nashville; where could it have COME from? I guess it’s not quite as weird as finding a dead deer in the middle of midtown Manhattan, but still… You’d be surprised how much widlife can exist in the big city. There was a coyote captured right on Michigan Avenue in Chicago (The Magnificent Mile) in 1999, and it wasn’t an escaped pet or zoo animal, it was a wild coyote. [http://chicagowildernessmag.org/issues/winter2001/wiley.html](http://chicagowildernessmag.org/issues/winter2001/wiley.html) > [@](#): > > Chicago residents were taken by surprise in March of 1999 when the Chicago Tribune publicized the capture of a coyote that was hiding under a taxi on Michigan Avenue. That was no surprise to Chris Anchor, a wildlife biologist with the Forest Preserve District of Cook County charged with capturing and releasing the urban coyote. According to his studies, all coyote habitat in Cook County is occupied and spoken for. The coyotes have been living among us for several decades. ---
**Author:** ![tygerbryght](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9a28c/32.png) [@tygerbryght](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygerbryght)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/36 "2004-11-11T09:15:53Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > … And just within the last few days, a friend’s car struck and killed a faun. 😕 Be glad your friend did that in Wisconsin, and not in Greece. Pan might just come back to avenge that one. 😛 And a razzberry to **Greywolf73** for beating me to posting a link to Dogs in Elk. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![twelvericepaddies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@twelvericepaddies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twelvericepaddies)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/37 "2004-11-11T13:06:22Z")
Was Benny Hinn nearby? Things today can only arise from the dead if Benny Hinn enacts a miracle - usually with a decent donation preceeding the miracle. He said he raised a woman (3 days dead I think) from the dead in Africa. Doing a deer should be easy. > [@Anise](#): > > Maybe it rose from the dead. I don’t know. :dubious: > I’m sorry about the non-tawdriness of the thread, btw. Maybe if we changed it to “I saw my neighbors having sex with a deer in the back yard at three a.m. for three nights running now…” ---
**Author:** ![Dignan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/38 "2004-11-11T14:26:18Z")
> [@Boyo Jim](#): > > Another bit of deer trivia. Nearly 1 in 6 auto accidents in WI involve deer. IMO, a pretty astounding number, given there are hardly any deer in **Milwaukee**. [sub]bolding mine[/sub] Maybe it’s considered to be an accident involving a deer (or a “Buck” to be more exact) whenever some point guard gets in a fender bender? ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/39 "2004-11-11T15:13:23Z")
> [@Gamaliel](#): > > Is plane hunting a popular Wisconsin sport? Nahhh. The wings are too crunchy, and they’re really hard to skin. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829/40 "2004-11-11T17:54:45Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > Nahhh. The wings are too crunchy, and they’re really hard to skin. My uncle once threw a deer’d head on his garage because he wanted the antlers. So,we stayed away from is house for several months. His neighbors oddly enough, didn’t complain. I suspecy it was because he was their drinking buddy and also a plumber who did stuff for free, [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-neighbors-are-doing-this-is-it-illegal/273829.md?page=3)