INDIANA NEWS: Deer Breaks Into House, Bleeds Out

The first half of May has been quite eventful for Bob and Helen Meyer of Decatur. On May 8, their son, city police Detective Eric "Keebie" Meyer, was the upset winner of the Republican primary election for nomination to run for mayor, deposing five-term chief executive Fred Isch. Saturday, May 12 was Keebie's birthday. Sunday, May 13, was Bob's and Helen's 57th wedding anniversary and also Mother's Day.

Oh, yeah, there was one more thing: on the 12th - a young deer bashed into the couple's Mercer Ave. home and bled to death after severing a jugular vein on broken window glass. The Meyers said they were watching television around 6 p.m. on Saturday in the rear of their home when they heard glass breaking. They went to the front door and saw a man who had stopped his pickup truck on Mercer, near Adams Memorial Hospital, and who told them he had just missed two deer darting across the road. The man then said one of the deer jumped through a window into the Meyer home. That window is beside the front door, but a wall separates the door from the room next door, so Bob and Helen could not see the damage.

As they investigated the damage in that bedroom, they heard another sound of breaking glass, so they went to a second bedroom and found a young male deer on the floor, dying. "He was still kicking." Bob recalls, but there was blood everywhere: on walls, the floor, the bed, pillows, clothes, etc. The deer had apparently not been badly hurt going through the first window, but severed a major vein as he tried to escape through the second window. Luckily, the animal did not damage any of the many plastic warplane models that Bob, an Air Force veteran, has in the den and the bedroom in which the deer died.

"If he'd have damaged those planes, I would have killed him," Bob said on Tuesday. The Meyers expect their insurance to cover the losses and the replacement of such things as carpeting and even a pair of pants that Bob had never worn, but which were spotted with blood. Maybe the second half of the month will be calmer . . . but wait until the mayoral race culminates in November.

Source: http://www.decaturdailydemocrat.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5501&Itemid=27

WEST VIRGINIA NEWS: Three More Cases of CWD Confirmed

CHARLESTON — Three more free-ranging white-tailed deer in Hampshire County have tested positive for chronic wasting disease, bringing the total of CWD-positive deer found in that county to 13, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources an-nounced Friday.

These most recent samples were collected from 101 adult deer taken in March and April by DNR personnel as part of an ongoing and intensive CWD surveillance effort. The three CWD-positive deer were collected within the CWD Containment Area located north of U.S. Route 50 in Hampshire County. The laboratory testing was conducted by the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study at the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

When CWD was first confirmed in Hampshire County in September 2005, the DNR immediately implemented a response plan. The DNR has been engaged in intensive CWD surveillance efforts designed to determine the distribution and prevalence of the disease. These efforts have included carefully planned and coordinated deer collections within Hampshire County by CWD deer collection teams.

“These deer collection teams have continued their efforts to gather appropriate samples within the surveillance area to accurately determine the prevalence and distribution of CWD,” said DNR Director Frank Jezioro.

“Our initial CWD surveillance data suggests the disease is located within a relatively small geographic area located near Slanesville,” said Jezioro. “This is encouraging news. Based upon these findings, we have implemented appropriate management actions designed to control the spread of this disease, prevent further introduction of the disease and possibly eliminate the disease from the state,” Jezioro added.

Source: http://www.times-news.com/local/local_story_132093832.html