Deer Dissection
Nov 2015
*NOT for sensitive people*
Preface: I know many people may be against hunting; as I know I use to be myself. I tried a few times to be vegetarian, but failed. Personally, I just hate to think of any pain or agony an animal might have to go through for my dietary needs. But, after seeing how most animals get treated SO badly in many facilities that provide grocery stores with meat, I thought twice about getting behind hunting. We live(d) on 160 acres in southern Indiana and often see the many deer eating our soybeans as they go about their life sharing our farm. They are free-range, and seem fairly happy. Then once a year, my Dh will go out and hunt. The deer are killed with precision. One minute they are enjoying the outdoors and the next they have gone on to the woods in heaven....no semi-trucks transporting them to a killing facility, no stress or trauma. Then my family participates in 'cleaning' the animal---taking out the organs. Some people might think this process is gross, but I feel like it is important that we see the cost of our meat consumption. We see the animal that has given it's life for us. We try to learn and appreciate all we can from the lessons these deer can share with us; and help us not to mindlessly eat meat as if it were an apple or some fruit or veg.
I'm posting some pictures of SOME of the dissection we went through last week with our deer. I'm sure many people have no interest in seeing these kinds of pictures; but since my Dd wants to go into the medical field, these are very important stepping stones in her education. God's design amazes us the more we look!
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| The family goes out to get the doe that Dh shot. Dh loves the Allis Chambers tractor, and their engineered trailer. |
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| Deer have THREE stomachs. Since Dh shot the deer straight through the heart, the cavity below the diaphragm was very clean and white. Dh accidentally touched the stomach and left a bit of blood from his gloves |
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| You can see the purple liver on the left side sticking out between the top and middle stomach |
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| So interesting to see all the webbing holding the organs into place. Here you can see the small intestines. |
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| Dd got to touch and feel each thing as Dh went along giving us a full lesson as he did each thing; pointing out every organ. |
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| You can see the diaphragm up above the top stomach |
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| Dh is touching the right lobe of the liver |
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| This is the diaphragm, you can really see the network of muscle strands woven together |
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| After taking out the diaphragm the lower organs deflated like a balloon. You can really see the large and small intestines now that the stomachs deflated |
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| You can see the liver laying on top--Dh's parents always eat that. |
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| I believe that green thing might be the gallblader |
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| There was two distinctly different kinds of fat on the deer. This was the soft organ fat that was plentiful around the organs. Then there was the fat that was right under the skin, and it was super hard and stiff. |
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| After cutting out the organs you could see into the rectum, can you see the weird white on the bottom of the opening? it looked like intestines or brain--white, soft, and ropey. |
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| Dh thought this was the spleen |
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| This is what was left of the heart. Dh did a fantastic job of shooting the deer. The deer died instantly. |
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| This is what the inside cheeks of the deer's mouth look like....not what I would have guessed the inside of a deer's mouth would look like! Really bumpy. |
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| Dh skinned part of the head of the deer so Dd could see the jaw, mouth, teeth, tongue, ears, eyes...we looked at it all and really learned a lot. This picture is showing what deer teeth look like. |
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| Dd was very interested in the head of the deer, and all the parts. |
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| Dd got to see the pipe for air and the esophagus for swallowing |
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| Dd wanted to see the ...I'm having a brain freeze and can't think of it--trachea or wind pipe? Dh got it out for her to see |
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| Esophagus |
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| Dd found a white worm in-between the ridges of the trachea...wonder what that was? I know it wasn't suppose to be there! Wonder how long it had been hiding in the deer's throat?! |
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Here is the eye. It was so very hard to get it out, but Dd learned a lot.
Well, that is our show for today. Dd was really interested and curious about all the parts of the deer's anatomy. I'm glad she had the right attitude about investigating. And seeing how incredible God is for putting us all together. |
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