When hunters kill big game animals, there is a lot that remains after the meat is removed: hide, bones, guts, and so on.
It is illegal to dump leftover carcass parts anywhere other than the kill site, but many people do so anyway. Impromptu dumps near towns or off public roads can devolve into rancid piles of carcasses.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is also concerned that careless carcass disposal may contribute to the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD), which kills deer, elk, and moose.
To help stem the stench, Game and Fish has set up carcass dumpsters in several locations throughout the Sheridan-Buffalo area, and hunters are encouraged to use them instead of discarding animal parts in random places.
Game and Fish Sheridan Region spokeswoman Christina Schmidt told Cowboy State Daily that hunters have responded well.
“Usage of the dumpsters varies by location, but the most heavily used one has averaged approximately 7 tons of carcasses during the hunting season,” she told me. “These are parts of the animal left over after processing.”
‘Edible Portions’
Which big game animal parts might, or might not, come out of the field with hunters can be a complicated matter.
Some hunters gut an animal and haul out the entire carcass. However, this only works if a vehicle or camp is nearby.
Hunters who go further in and shoot animals miles from the nearest road usually quarter the carcass or bone out the meat and take only the edible portions with them.
This can be accomplished in a backpack or with livestock like horses or pack goats.
Edible portions are defined by Game and Fish as meat from the front and hind quarters, backstrap, and tenderloins.
Some hunters harvest meat from the neck, ribs, and belly.
Some hunters keep the hide, or portions of it, while others do not. Most also take the antlers or horns, which are attached to either the skull plate or the entire head.
In areas where CWD testing is required, hunters must also pack out the head or remove the lymph nodes to allow Game and Fish to test them for the disease.
Hunter Shaun Harris of Cody is one of those who hunts in remote areas and packs out deboned meat rather than dragging an entire carcass long distances.
Even in remote areas, he goes the extra mile to disperse the remains so they don’t pile up in one location.
“You could go back out there hunting two or three days later, and unless you really know what you’re looking for, you’d never know if there’s a kill site there, because the coyotes and the crows have gotten to it,” he told me.
Heaps Of Carcasses
Harris thinks the Game and Fish carcass dumpsters are a good idea.
They might prevent clandestine carcass dump sites that pop up around towns or near roads every fall, he said.
Typically “it’s just in a known spot, so you’ll get 20, 30 or 40 carcasses piled up out there,” he said.
That’s the sort of scenario Game and Fish hopes to avoid to help prevent the spread of CWD, which is caused by prions, or malformed proteins. It primarily attacks animals’ brains and nervous systems.
Game and Fish urges hunters to be cautious about leaving animal heads and spines piled up in unauthorized spots.
“Whole carcasses can be transported to a camp, private residence for processing, a taxidermist, a processor, or a CWD sample collection site in Wyoming provided that the head and all portions of the spinal column remain at the site of kill or such parts are disposed of in any approved landfill or approved incinerator in Wyoming,” according to Game And Fish.
It’s also illegal for non-resident hunters to transport whole deer, elk or moose carcasses out of Wyoming.
Ranchers: Just Be Polite About It
Some Wyoming ranchers told Cowboy State Daily that they generally don’t mind hunters leaving carcass parts or gut piles at kill sites, so long as they’re considerate about it.
“If somebody brought the antelope or deer into your corrals and used the cross-members to hoist it up to gut it, and then left the gut pile there, that would be a problem,” Dennis Sun, a Casper-based rancher, said.
Carcass parts can attract predators, which ranchers do not want near their livestock, Sun explained.
“It’s better to put them where there aren’t roads or farms or ag facilities,” according to him.
Sweetwater County rancher Thomas Chant stated that his ranch provides forage, water, and habitat for a large number of elks.
He doesn’t mind, but he expects hunters who kill elk on or near his property to follow proper “Western etiquette” in return.
They should be mindful of where they leave gut piles, especially when ranch dogs are present, Chant advised.
“Gut piles, when they rot and stink, your dog can get into it,” he told me.
“Your dog will be happy for a short period of time. But then you won’t be happy,” he explained.
According to Chant, doing the right thing does not require much time or extra effort on the part of hunters.
“Maybe you can take the extra two seconds it takes to roll that gut pile over into some sagebrush so it isn’t an eyesore for whoever comes down that road,” according to him.
Schmidt also stated that Game and Fish has made an effort to be considerate about where carcass dumpsters are placed so that the odor of decay does not permeate occupied areas.
“Dumpsters are located in areas where they are visible and easily accessed by hunters, but also not near residences or businesses,” she told me. “They are emptied regularly by professional sanitation companies to minimize odor and keep the area as clean as possible.”
