Cost to tranquilize a deer ??

Can anyone tell me the cost to tranquilize a whitetail deer , and also if someone else done this for you ?



What's the going rate in Wisconsin to charge someone to tranquilize your deer, and they are moving them to their place as they bought them, and they said they are charging only to tranqilize.

If someone is buying deer from you to take to their place they shouldn't be charging you anything to take them. They should be willing to do it for no cost.

Thanks ,

I agreed to pay for the tranqilizing only , and when he sent me the check he charged me $125.00 per Deer and had taken 12 deer, so that was $1500.00 , Plus he moved 3 deer at my place and charged another $375.00 . He actually came in April and moved all 12 to his place , and said he would feed them , and in the Fall we would go there and measure them . He was to pay us on Nov. 15th 2010. When we got the check late , there was a total of $2,500.00 out of the check including his expense ..I thought he would of charged us $25. to $30.00 per Deer, as the Vet said that is cost .We need to fight this so I need opions from other Deer growers. Thanks

Actual cost to sedate and reverse a buck deer on my place including dart is $34.02 per adult buck deer, does would be a little cheaper. This is using Xylazine 5 to 1 with Telazol and reversing with Tolazine and includes dart. No other costs like travel, time etc. I think most of us would be in this range of cost.

Your problem as I see it is you didn't have a set sedation price to begin with. Not much of a leg to stand on in any court. Your lack of a handling facility is what has caused this problem. I understand him charging for his services but they are high that is for sure.



The question you have to ask yourself is did he pay a fair price for your bucks. By this I mean did he pay at least 40% of his shooting price. If so you may be better off working with him for future sales. These are hard times and I would not want to bite off the hand that took my bucks unless you were paid badly also.

Per the over charge for tranquilizing my Deer.

There’s a lot to explain :

Number one he was to feed the Deer at his expense as stated on the agreement.. ( From April till Fall ).

His expense was added to the charges with the tranquilizing , but the agreement says he will pay all expenses to get the Deer ( He’s charging travel and Mileage , not our agreement ).

The agreement also stated that he would buy 14 , took only 12 , and was to come back in Sept . to get the other two.

It was getting late so we called and e-mailed because we had to get those deer out of my breeder pen After a month he finally called and said he will be here Now its Oct.

He came with his big trailer and got out and said he decided not to take the Deer ( Why come with the trailer ???).

But he said he will move the deer . He actually Moved three. Then we got a bill for $125.00 each = $375.00 . No agreement to this in writing,

We finally found another buyer , but we were leaving the next day , so we told him we would move the deer to him when we got back .I had someone watching the deer and feeding them .They came once a day .

After we got back both deer were dead , the person who was feeding them , said they were fine one day and the next day both were dead.. So I lost another $2,400.00.

If he would of took the deer like he said ,I would have had my money.

So with the over charge of the tranquilizing ( assuming I only had to pay $500.00, instead of $2,000.00 ) & the deer lost = $4,400.00.

I don’t take a back seat to someone stealing from me . Yes, I will fight this .

I only ask if some of you Deer Growers would help with the high price of the tranquilizing , and give me your opinions of what the rate is to tranquilize deer. ( I was charged $125.00 per deer.)

See other letters posted from some of the good people out there .

Wildone,

Sounds like you have a mess on your hands. It cost us $25-$30 per head depending on the size of the deer. With that said when I sell a deer off my farm and it needs to be tranquilized to be loaded I do it myself (as I don't want anyone else shooting in my pens) and I take all the risk until the deer is in the trailer, reversed and on it's feet.



You may want to invest in some equipment and learn to do this yourself.

No doubt,You can get a dart gun for a couple hundred if you are only going to dart every now and then.Start a good relationship with your vet and meds will be no problem and if possible take a class on safe capture.It is not a hard thing to do if you have someone in your area to give you some of the finer points...

Wildone



Here in Texas, most folk will dart their own deer, it certainly is the cheapest option. Yes the actual cost of darting your own deer will be the cost of the drugs and the equipment (darts etc) which is about $30 $40 using (Telazol/Xylazine).



If however you require the services of someone to dart your deer for you, whether it be moving deer from one pen to another or you have SOLD your deer to someone else, the person offering his darting services generally charges $125 per deer, some times more depending on the value of the deer and the drugs he is using.



My opinion:

If you sell your deer to a buyer you should a agree on a price per deer loaded into his trailer or delivered to his pens which would include all darting and handling costs, whether you did it your self or had to hire some one to do it for you. If delivering the deer for the buyer you could include the transport if it close by and charge per running mile if further away.



If the person who is buying your deer offers to dart the deer and load into his trailer himself and transport himself, then you should not have to pay for any of the darting, handling and transport expenses, but you might give him a slightly better deal on the price of the deer.



Personally I would not let any buyer dart deer in my pens, unless I knew he was TOTALLY competent and agreed to my handling protocols in my pens.

$125 a deer...Thats a crazy price to pay anyone to dart a deer...If someone asked me to dart their deer and they didnt have meds or darts than thats what they would pay for..The only way there would be more is if there was a travel issue..Of course the person doing the darting would not be held responsible for any darting problem that may happen...

The first couple of times I only ask for someone to cover the expenses of darts and drugs. After that I start to charge for my time this way they are encouaged to buy their own equipment.

[QUOTE..Of course the person doing the darting would not be held responsible for any darting problem that may happen...[/QUOTE]



That's exactly why they charge $125 per deer, because they are being held accountable as they should be. I have seen far to many people in this industry say they offer darting services but actually know VERY little about the drugs they are using, can't recognize if the animal is showing adverse effects to the immobilization or how to deal with the effect etc etc. They call themselves experts because they have attended a 2 day chemical immobilization course. I would happily pay $125 per deer darted if the person was totally proficient in chemical immobilization with years of experience, what is $125 on a $3500 - $5000 doe.

Obviously if the deer are worth the price you mentioned its O.K , BUT IN MY SITUATION , he moved 12 Bucks to his place , and after we measured in the Fall , I would only get $7.000.oo for all 12 . He wanted to feed them so they would get big racks , that was a mistake , I trusted the guy , The deer we feed had nice racks . Live & Learn . Then he moved 3 that stayed here . So he deducted $1,875.00.

I would of never made a deal like this , most of the growers said his cost , and maybe even a little extra ( $35.00 cost & $15.00 extra ) I think this man didn't have a good year and put the $125.00 per deer to take advantage of us . If you read the whole story that I WROTE above , you would understand the situation more. If he would of took 12 deer worth $3,500 = $42,000.00 , then charge me $125.00 , thats $1,500.00 off the check , I could smile and be happy. At any rate he did lie to us and he will be in court .

Thanks for your opinion...

You are right and i dont know why anyone would charge or pay that much.You cant tell me there is any so called experts that have darted deer and never had a problem.When you dart sooner or later there will be a problem.If a fellow farmer asked me to dart i would charge darts and meds and explain to them that there is no way i can say there might not be a problem.If anyone says they will charge $125 and say there will be no problem will they eat the cost of so called doe worth $2500 to $5000......Bull%*!t

Wildone I'm sorry to hear about your BAD experience, It certainly does sound like this guy took advantage of you by picking and choosing what deer he wanted at your expense, hard to trust people these days!!



Four Seasons. I don't have a problem with people charging for darting services if it's part of their career and as mentioned they MUST be very competent. I do agree with you, anyone saying they have not or will not ever have a problem when darting deer, is talking Bu@#$%t, we all know problems WILL arise.

Its just to bad that you had to take that big of a hit in the checkbook.The best thing i guess is live and learn.You know now about this fella so if there is a next time the price of yur bucks just went up atleast $125.The best thing is to get yurself a gun and learn how to do it.There has to be someone close to you that can show you the ins and outs.Talk to your vet and build a good relationship for all your farm needs and i am sure getting the meds will not be a problem.

We actually have a Gun, and we were going to dart the three he moved later ,but he was coming to buy the two I mentioned above so we waited. As it turned out we could of got the medicine from our Vet ,who we has done all our deer testing for us , and he also helped us when 3 dogs got in our pens and I lost 5 deer in 2009. We found out who the dog owners were , one paid us and the other dog owner lost in court , but hes broke so we have a judgement , and he can pay us $100.00 a month plus interest,for the next 5 years. That incident was a shocker too. Your right live & learn . Thats the story of my life.

"That's exactly why they charge $125 per deer, because they are being held accountable as they should be."



Capchaman. I have darted more deer for the public than I can possibly remember. Each client must sign a waiver of liability before I will set one foot inside their pens. I could not and would not be held accountable as too many variables are involved and, as you admitted, problems WILL arise. I do not want to start an argument, but would like to ask a question. Why do you feel that someone who charges for darting services should be held accountable for such?

Tex-Star Wildlife Service said:

"That's exactly why they charge $125 per deer, because they are being held accountable as they should be."



Capchaman. I have darted more deer for the public than I can possibly remember. Each client must sign a waiver of liability before I will set one foot inside their pens. I could not and would not be held accountable as too many variables are involved and, as you admitted, problems WILL arise. I do not want to start an argument, but would like to ask a question. Why do you feel that someone who charges for darting services should be held accountable for such?

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Tex-Star I totally agree with you making your clients sign a waiver of liability, sounds like you are a professional operator! what I mean by being held accountable is the person offering the darting services should have some accountability or responsibility in that they shouldn't think that they can get away with bad darting practices and cause damage because of their negligence. As you and I would not want to have to pay for a $20000 animal that we darted and had a bad reaction to drugs and died, although we acted professionally and tried our best to prevent that from happening. We can't expect because the owner has signed a waiver to be careless and start flinging darts at running deer, burying darts in animals, being to rowdy in the pens causing unnecessary stress leading to the death or injury etc. we need to be responsible and accountable in that sense. I have heard from a few my clients who had such problems and had to suffer the losses. Sure, guys that operate like that won't last in the industry but they are there.



Sorry if I created confusion!! I was trying to defend part of the reason we charge for our darting services.

Thank you for the response. I misinterpreted your prior post by assuming that "being accountable" equated to being financially responsible for the value of the animal should something go wrong.