It was the last thing Natalie Ford expected to see, mutilated ducks and deer haphazardly thrown into this creek bed near the intersection of Garnett Road and 51st Street in East Tulsa.
Dumping animal carcasses is illegal in the city limits, but to Natalie this is about much more than breaking the law. “As a Cherokee I am extremely offended, as the daughter of a hunter, I am extremely offended,” Natalie Ford said Tuesday.
She and her daughter Laura stumbled upon the animal carcasses by accident Tuesday afternoon.
“My daughter walked over to the creek bed and saw a carcass that had a full spine and ribs, and we weren't sure, because it looked like it could be human,” Natalie told FOX23.
So they called the police who stumbled upon something even more grisly.
“They found a lot of duck carcasses where the breasts had been torn out and the ducks had been thrown in there, (and they also found) deer parts where they had cut off the head and the legs and they were just thrown everywhere.”
The Fords can't understand why someone would dump these animals just 50 feet from 51st Street.
“It makes me sick,” Laura Ford said.
People who work in the area aren't sure what to think.
“I don't know, it's pretty gross. It stinks,” one worker said.
Within the city limits is not where anyone would expect to find this scene.
“Back in the day when this all used to be farmland, maybe. Now it's more residential, this is a whole industrial area,” Natalie said.
“Maybe out in the middle of nowhere I could see this, but not in Tulsa,” Laura told FOX23.
While she might never know who's responsible, Natalie still wants that unknown person to know how she feels.
“Stop. Do it the right way. You're an embarrassment to all hunters.”
Tulsa's Animal Welfare Manger told FOX23 no matter what animals should never be dumped in city limits.
“Those animals could easily have been hunted legally and then the carcass dumped in this area. It is not the proper disposal of animal carcasses,” Jean Letcher said.
What is the proper way to dispose of a small animal? Letcher said to put the carcass in a trash bag and call the city's Dead Animal Collection Line.
“As long as it can be picked up by a single individual, that's what you do in the city.”
For more information on dead animal collection, click here:
http://www.cityoftulsa.org/city-services/refuse/special-refuse-services.aspx.
