Eight deer carcasses left near Juneau highway

JUNEAU (AP) -- A hunter selected the best cuts from eight deer last week, then left the rest to rot alongside Glacier Highway.

Fish and Wildlife Troopers found the carcasses in a pullout at Mile 22 Thursday morning. Now the troopers are looking for the hunter who wasted the 150 pounds of venison.

''It looked like someone got way too zealous to me,'' said Fish and Wildlife Trooper Glenn Taylor. ''They were out there shooting deer and got all the meat they wanted.''

Seven of the deer were missing only the backstrap and tenderloin, considered the tastiest, most tender steaks. The eighth deer still had its backstrap.

''It is unusual to find a pile of eight of them where all of them had meat left on them,'' Taylor said.

A couple of the deer were medium sized and the rest were very small one- to two-year-olds.

The mound of deer was fairly new when the troopers found it, Taylor said. A chunk of ice from someone's freezer was beside the bodies, still partially frozen.

The carcasses weren't fresh enough to salvage though, so the troopers moved them deeper into the woods and left them there.

Deer are in season with no size limit and hunters can take two on the mainland or four on Douglas or the other islands.

''But they do need to salvage all the meat on a big game animal,'' Taylor said. ''That's actually a pretty serious crime.''

Leaving the deer meat is considered wanton waste, a misdemeanor. The punishment is at least 7 days in jail and a $2,500 fine for each count, Taylor said. The state also makes hunters pay restitution, at $400 per deer.

Troopers asked that anyone with information on the incident call them at 465-4000.