How Long For Buzzards to Eat A Horse?

[troutsqueezer]

Buzzards been circling down the hill towards the edge of the property for the last couple of days. Scores of them. Wife calls me from her cell phone after leaving for a trip into town this morning and says there's something big and dead alongside the road leading up to the house and I'd better get on the ATV and check it out. She says about 25 buzzards had to get off the road before she could pass.

Took the camera and headed down. Sure enough, seven feet down the steep side of the driveway was a very large, and dead, horse. Still had a halter and a rope. Buzzards have been tearing open the gut and spreading out the innards. Head is a solid mass of flies. Last night we heard coyotes, more of them and louder than they've been in quite some time, this is probably why.

I visited all the neighbors who keep horses and none of them were missing one. I inspected the scene more closely and could not see any hoof prints leading up to the carcass. There are some dead branches on top of the horse and I can't see how they got there. I'm now thinking someone dumped him there since that part of the road is well-hidden from view.

County Animal Control says since it is on private property so there's a fee for removal. It is starting to stink and no doubt will get worse. It would take a pretty big hole to bury it and the ground is hard, dry and full of weeds. Would be a task for the B21 and I hate to start a wildfire. If it was Winter, I wouldn't think twice.

I've watched buzzards eat a number of dead deer and those took around two weeks. Might take the rest of the year or more for a horse, I dunno. Any thoughts?

Here's a picture of the buzzards.

 

[k0ua]

I think it will be about the same as the deer. There will just be more buzzards come to the bigger meal.

 

[teejk]

Won't take long...you probably have coyotes and crows as well...then the mice come in to consume the bones. Circle of life. You don't want to get into why somebody would turn a horse loose but with high fuel prices that contribute to high feed prices, we are seeing more and more cases of neglected horses around here. They are not "cheap to keep" animals.

 

[RalphVa]

They'll have a deer down to bones in 48 hours. Great natural disposal method. Only other good natural way is by composting. A guy at Virginia Tech in charge of the compost piles there says he's composted cows.

Ralph

 

[tractchores]

As long as it's down wind you should be good . We had one and you could smell it a quarter mile away, ended up burying it in a shallow grave to get rid of the stink. I'd think it'll b picked clean in a couple of weeks

 

[lostcreekranch]

Regardless of of it takes 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months you will still have a lot to dispose of.

Are there any buried utilities where horse carcass was dumped? If not, hire someone with a back hoe to dig hole and bury it.

Good luck.

Rick

 

[jinman]

You could cover the carcass in lime to reduce the smell, but that would probably discourage the critters. The smell is what makes them lick their lips/beaks.

 

[creekbend]

It would depend on the number of Buzzards, Coyotes, and other scavengers. I agree with the other member stating that even after the carcass is cleaned completely, you will still have a fair amount of bones to bury.

 

[RoMad]

We had an old crippled pony that we put down and my son buried in a hole he dug with ck 20. After about a week something dug it up and scattered bones and pieces around the hole. You could smell it 200 yards away. I opened the hole with
L2900 and pushed it all back in and burned a bunch of big limbs on on it. All was well except my tractor smelled like a dead pony when I was finished.

 

[k0ua]

All was well except my tractor smelled like a dead pony when I was finished.

YUK!. how long did that last?:yuck::yuck: