KIOWA, Colo. -- A Kiowa woman said she was saddened and angered to see a deer, with a hunting arrow stuck in its face, wander into her yard Monday.

"I am extremely upset that this animal was shot by some brainless wonder that did not know how to shoot in the first place,” Marilyn Thornbery told 7NEWS. “It should have been tracked and put down.”

“I know when my husband would hunt, if he couldn’t catch an animal, he came back and got me and we went to track it down,” she added.

Thornbery took several pictures of the injured animal. They show an arrow running from the animal’s nose to the back of the jaw.

She said she doesn’t know if the deer was shot by a hunter or a poacher. She called the Division of Wildlife and is upset that they didn’t respond right away.

Wildlife officials said the agent in the area couldn’t respond quickly, because he was taking care of a sick raccoon.

“When you’re pitting a sick animal with possible rabies against something like that, you have to make a decision on the ground as to which one you need to respond to more quickly,” said DOW spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill.

Two agents did respond on Tuesday and began looking for the doe. Once they find it, they’ll make the determination whether it can be rehabilitated, or needs to be put down.

Churchill told 7NEWS that it’s difficult to say whether a hunter or poacher made the shot. “Certainly all ethical hunters try to make sure that they follow the animal they’ve shot and make sure that the animal is put down,” she said.

Churchill added that, based on the pictures Thornbery shot, the injury appears to be serious enough that the animal may have to be destroyed.

Churchill also said it’s difficult to rehabilitate injured deer. She said they have a chance if they can be operated on in their own habitat. “Unfortunately a lot of times they don’t survive the tranquilization, especially with the kind of temperatures we’ve been having.”

One wildlife rehabilitator told 7NEWS that if the deer is removed from its habitat it chances of survival diminish because once the tranquilization wears off, the deer will panic in captivity.

“Sometimes the deer will injure itself trying to get out,” Linda Cope said. “Sometimes it will wander out into traffic.”

Churchill said the Division doesn’t have the resources to respond to every injured animal, but she added that Thornbery did the right thing.

“I definitely want viewers to know that we care about wildlife in Colorado," Churchill said. "We do not turn a blind eye. It is certainly something we want to hear about from folks and we ask that they bear with us.”