Phaco
Active Member
First, let me say that I normally don't use the butcher. I normally do it myself. Of course, the one time that I do decide to use a butcher something has to go wrong...
Shot a nice deer a few days ago on an evening hunt, and knew that I had hit the deer in the liver/paunch. Saw him run across the field for about 60 yrds, and then stop to walk into the woods. SO, I mark where I shot him and where I had seen him go into the woods. I have a tracking dog, so there was no concern about finding the deer (so long as I hit him where I thought I had), and it was supposed to be frosty overnight. Come back the next morning with the dog, and he is able to track the deer fairly easily (764 yds by GPS). I look the deer over, and sure enough I had hit the deer at an angle; in the liver and out the stomach. So I get the deer field dressed, and noted that he was a little warm on the inside (only died a few hours ago)...so I felt that the deer was still good (even though there was the stomach smell).
Well, I get the deer loaded up and decide I want to use the butcher since some guys I hunt with rave about the sausage he makes. I get to the place, and apparently he isn't there, but there is someone there (I'm guessing his mom) to take the deer and record everything...this was at around 9 am. I get a call around 3 pm, and it is the butcher. He tells me that the deer is stomach shot, and he won't process it. Okay, fine. I've processed stomach shot deer before, I'll just pick it up and butcher it myself like I've done in the past. I get back at the butchers 30 min after he called me, and I see my deer out in the parking lot baking in the sun! The next thing I see is the butcher walking out reading me the riot act about how nasty the deer is, and he cannot process it because the bacteria will kill me. I'm thinking to myself he's young (probably 20's), doesn't know what he is talking about, and I'll just take the deer and be on my way. Well, he continues on about the bacteria and how deadly bacteria is and how it will kill me (It was amazing a butcher could be that ignorant about bacteria growth and contamination, but that is another conversation). That's when he gets the clorox out, and starts pouring it all over the deer and the blood that was out on the ground from my deer! He says that if his dog licks the blood, it will kill his dog! At this point I almost lost it, since he just poured bleach all over my deer! He continues on about how he had a customer drop off a deer that saw my deer, and how the customer got upset and now he is going to lose business...yada, yada, yada, blah, blah blah. I get the deer back in the truck, and next thing I know the girlfriend comes out, and jumps on the bandwagon...Well, at this point I decided to just walk away, and drive off. Needless to say, I won't be using the butcher anymore, and unfortunately I have a tie dyed albino deer I cannot use now.
I can understand why The butcher would be upset with a gut shot deer and processing other peoples deer, but why accept the deer? I just feel like he should have had a policy or had it posted somewhere to notify patrons before they decide to use his service.
Shot a nice deer a few days ago on an evening hunt, and knew that I had hit the deer in the liver/paunch. Saw him run across the field for about 60 yrds, and then stop to walk into the woods. SO, I mark where I shot him and where I had seen him go into the woods. I have a tracking dog, so there was no concern about finding the deer (so long as I hit him where I thought I had), and it was supposed to be frosty overnight. Come back the next morning with the dog, and he is able to track the deer fairly easily (764 yds by GPS). I look the deer over, and sure enough I had hit the deer at an angle; in the liver and out the stomach. So I get the deer field dressed, and noted that he was a little warm on the inside (only died a few hours ago)...so I felt that the deer was still good (even though there was the stomach smell).
Well, I get the deer loaded up and decide I want to use the butcher since some guys I hunt with rave about the sausage he makes. I get to the place, and apparently he isn't there, but there is someone there (I'm guessing his mom) to take the deer and record everything...this was at around 9 am. I get a call around 3 pm, and it is the butcher. He tells me that the deer is stomach shot, and he won't process it. Okay, fine. I've processed stomach shot deer before, I'll just pick it up and butcher it myself like I've done in the past. I get back at the butchers 30 min after he called me, and I see my deer out in the parking lot baking in the sun! The next thing I see is the butcher walking out reading me the riot act about how nasty the deer is, and he cannot process it because the bacteria will kill me. I'm thinking to myself he's young (probably 20's), doesn't know what he is talking about, and I'll just take the deer and be on my way. Well, he continues on about the bacteria and how deadly bacteria is and how it will kill me (It was amazing a butcher could be that ignorant about bacteria growth and contamination, but that is another conversation). That's when he gets the clorox out, and starts pouring it all over the deer and the blood that was out on the ground from my deer! He says that if his dog licks the blood, it will kill his dog! At this point I almost lost it, since he just poured bleach all over my deer! He continues on about how he had a customer drop off a deer that saw my deer, and how the customer got upset and now he is going to lose business...yada, yada, yada, blah, blah blah. I get the deer back in the truck, and next thing I know the girlfriend comes out, and jumps on the bandwagon...Well, at this point I decided to just walk away, and drive off. Needless to say, I won't be using the butcher anymore, and unfortunately I have a tie dyed albino deer I cannot use now.
I can understand why The butcher would be upset with a gut shot deer and processing other peoples deer, but why accept the deer? I just feel like he should have had a policy or had it posted somewhere to notify patrons before they decide to use his service.
