Like the title says, for about a couple months now, I’ve been finding dead animals around my property. I live in southern New Hampshire, in a relatively small town in the woods, so finding dead animals isn’t necessarily an uncommon thing. The only reason I’m making this post is how exactly I believe these animals have been killed.Since about May of 2022, I’ve been finding the corpses of animals around my property. I live in a small house down a dirt road, a little ways away from the nearest suburban neighborhood in my area. The area around my property is deep woods, and seeing wildlife isn’t uncommon at all. I see deer and rabbits the most often, but I’ve occasionally seen bears, foxes and wolves pass through my backyard too.
When the corpses started popping up, I didn’t really think much of anything other than ‘gross’. The first I found was a rabbit, with a huge chunk taken out of its abdomen - it looked like it had been shot right out. I continued on with my day, considering as I’d seen weirder things living around here. But more started popping up, day after day.
One night, during June, I let my dog out to pee. I stand there and wait for him and when I see he’s running back, I see he’s holding something in his mouth. I don’t realize until he gets closer that it’s the decapitated head of a rabbit. Now, at first I’d assumed my dog had ripped the poor thing apart , but upon looking at the head, it looked like the thing had been cut off by something. I’d imagine a dog like mine could have torn the thing off with its teeth, but it just didn’t look right. I just ended up throwing the head into the woods and taking my dog inside, because it made me pretty uneasy.I’m only making this post here and now because it’s gotten a lot worse. Not just more frequent, either. I’ve been keeping a log when I remember to, and I’ve counted at least 10 more rabbits over the past 2 weeks. Each of them had various parts missing from them. At first, it was just on the edges of my property, in the woods. But I’ve been finding them closer recently. Not closer and closer, per say, but one of them ended up right near the stairs on my deck. Whatever’s doing this, I guess it’s not scared of humans.
A few days ago, I found a dead deer in my driveway. It was just laying there when I got home from work, splayed out on the gravel on its side. As I approached it, I assumed it must just be injured or something. As soon as I got closer, though, I knew that wasn’t the case. I couldn’t see it very clearly from afar, considering my terrible vision, but as soon as I was right up on it, I could see that it was not a full deer. That is, it was only the top half of one. There was dried blood all over the gravel, as if it’d been killed right on the spot it laid. It was a ghastly sight, and recalling it now isn’t much better. Its guts were sort of just, hanging out of it, on the ground. The deer had this terrible, scared look on its face - ears straight up and eyes wide. I’ve got a pretty tough stomach, but this was enough to make me feel queasy. I ended up just shoving the body into the woods with my foot, completely unsure what else to do.
The worst of this happened last night. I like to take my walks during the night, because even up north it gets pretty hot during the day. I’m pretty weak when it comes to bearing the summer heat, so I tend to go out after the sun sets. I was walking my dog down the usual trail we go on - a hiking trail that runs along the edge of my property in the woods. As we were cutting through the woods to get to said trail, my dog very suddenly stopped and stared straight ahead. My dog is a German Shorthaired Pointer, and their instincts tell them to point at animals when they smell or hear them. So I stop when he does, and look ahead. As I mentioned before, I have terrible vision - I’m supposed to wear glasses, but I don’t. I can’t see much in the darkness, especially with the moon not being very full. What I can see, though, is something wrong with a tree a bit ahead of us. I couldn’t make out what was wrong, so I started slowly walking. As I do, I realize how silent it is - I couldn’t even hear any of the frogs that are usually active during this time of the month. If you’ve lived in the woods your entire life like I have, you know that they’re rarely silent.
I flick on the flashlight on my camera as I get closer. With the limited light illuminating the area in front of me, the first thing I see is something pink and a lot of red. It doesn’t take me very long to realize what I’m looking at. Another deer, it’s stomach split open. Except, it’s lodged in-between the branches of an oak tree maybe 7 feet off of the ground. My mouth immediately dropped open as I stared at the thing, a wave of shock and dread quickly hitting me. I barely noticed as my dog went up and started sniffing the tree. I felt a wave of nausea hit me as I scanned my flashlight across the deer. Its intestines were wrapped around the branch under it like a hose and it’s neck was craned in such a way I was sure it had been broken. It bent at a sharp angle, something hard straining the skin around the middle of the neck.
When I came back to reality, I realized I was shaking slightly. My hand had gripped my shirt when I’d first seen it, and I was sure that I’d been digging into my hand with my nails. A sick sense of curiosity nagging at my brain, I couldn’t help taking a few steps closer to look at the deer.I can feel my heart rate slowly start to fall, though the dread cradling the nausea in my stomach doesn’t leave. I held the leash my dog was on tightly, not wanting him to take any steps closer, lest the deer be diseased. It didn’t look like it’d been dead for very long. The blood had dried, but I couldn’t see any maggots crawling around its wounds. What kept me feeling so uneasy was the fact that it was in a place it clearly didn’t belong.
Eventually, I decided to turn back. I had begun feeling a terribly strong paranoia. I’d felt something like it before, late at night. The feeling that something is watching you. I’d always attributed it to a strong delusion that came with my anxious nature, but delusion is delusion and I felt unsafe in those woods. The feeling didn’t leave me for the entire night. Even when I’d settled into my house, I found myself locking my doors and closing my blinds. The fear that had dug it’s way into my brain was strong, and every noise I heard I was sure was something dangerous. I ended up turning around and covering anything with eyes. It didn’t matter to me that my stuffed animals couldn’t think, much less see. I was sure everything was watching me. It only subsided when I woke up this morning.
I’m afraid of who or what could possibly be doing this to all these animals. I can’t possibly imagine it to be a hunter. A. Because the first deer was cut straight in half and B. It’s illegal to hunt deer during summer months. The only other option I thought of was a mountain lion, but that really also doesn’t line up, considering the first deer had been split down the middle. It could be the fear talking, but it seems odd to me that the bodies are just left sitting around. One would assume an animal whose hunting would completely eat its prey, not just take a couple bites and leave, right? I have yet to find any more animals as of 8:12 PM, but I’m still pretty nervous. I’m a little afraid to go outside tonight or let my dog out of my sight.
I have yet to hear anything or see any tracks that could lead me to find what’s doing this, but I’m going to keep a lookout.
Does anyone have any ideas of what could be doing this, or how I could find out? I’m not too knowledgeable on animal hunting behavior, so any help would be appreciated.