Tough Winter for Deer;

Keep Dogs in Control

By Sandy Vondrasek

It’s been a long winter for deer, and now, with the browse in deer yards gone, and deep snow on the ground, Vermont’s white-tail deer are facing their most difficult few weeks.

As they move out of sheltered softwood stands onto the crusty snow, the weakened deer are at particular risk of attack by coyotes and dogs.

Vermont’s Fish & Wildlife Department is urging dog owners to keep their pets under control.

"Snow conditions in much of the state are some of the worst for deer we have seen in many years," said Col. Robert Rooks, Vermont’s chief game warden.

"The snow is deep and settled. Deer are having a difficult time moving about, especially if they start to run, which causes them to sink deeper. Dogs, however, can run without sinking in as much."

This week, local F&W Warden Keith Gallant echoed the caution.

"In the last week, the deer have really started to become victims of predation," Gallant said.

Gallant hasn’t encountered too many "dog issues" so far this year, but there was a bad one Sunday night in Royalton. It ended with the dog dead—it was hit by a car—and the deer almost certainly dead.

"The deer went into the river with a blood trail," he said.

Only Takes Seconds

Most people don’t realize how quickly a dog running on snow can overtake a deer, and how quickly the dog can inflict mortal injury once it catches up with the animal, Gallant noted.

"It can take only seconds for a dog to get its teeth on a deer, which is likely to die, due to hamstring issues and blood loss," he said. "The stress is too much this time of year."

Gallant recalled a case he investigated last winter. A pair of cross-country skiers were out with their dogs in the Flint Road area of Braintree, when the dogs went missing.

The dogs were out of sight for 20 or 30 seconds, Gallant said. When the skiers caught up with them, they found one of the dogs had "got hold of a deer."

"Literally in those seconds, the damage was so extensive that the skiers couldn’t believe that the dog could have done it."

However, tracks clearly showed that the deer had been bedded down nearby.

Deer can make their way on the crust, sometimes. However, they are more likely to break through when running, and in icy conditions, their legs "go out from under them and they collapse," the game warden said. Deer have no way to "grip" the crust and are particularly vulnerable going downhill.

"When a dog or coyote chases them downhill—that’s the end of it," Gallant said.

It is particularly important to keep dogs under control in areas where deer are being regularly seen, he said. Deer are showing up, he said, by roads and in back yards, where they are finding "shrubbery" and other browse, and easier footing on packed snow.

State law allows Vermont law enforcement officers to shoot dogs that are chasing deer, and the dog owner is subject to a $200 fine and loss of hunting and fishing licenses.

Gallant noted that the deer herd entered winter in good health; it is still too early to predict how this record-breaking winter will affect herd health. So far, he said, there have not been excessive reports of deer kill.

One possible result of the long winter, however, could be fewer fawns. Following an easy winter, Gallant said, many "doubles" and even triplets are born. If conditions are particularly harsh, "there will be fewer fawns born, as the energy has to go into the mother to survive."