I have always field dressed my deer and pronghorn at the site they went down.  In the woods where I hunt deer, we have coyotes, foxes and mountain lions.  I take the heart and liver out of each animal but leave the rest.  On the ranch where we hunt deer and pronghorn, the rancher likes us to leave the gut piles so the coyotes and bobcats and eagles, hawks,ravens and vultures can eat them and not bother his livestock.  He also likes the predators around to hunt the prairie dogs that live on his property.

Here in Michigan the common thing is to gut the animal and within a couple days the yotes and smaller critters have usally taken care of the pile.  I really don't think it scares other deer, as I've seen many deer near gutpiles and they seem to go about there business without any problem.  It's the same with urinating in the woods.  Some people say they carry a container and take it out with them because the smell in the woods will scare the deer away.  That is really not acccurate because studies have been made and urine is going to turn to ammonia in short order and an animal can't tell what species it came from.  They have even left urine in deer scrapes and bucks still come right in and do their thing.  The big thing is not leaving your hman scent on branches and stuff because a deer will sure do a U turn if they smell that!

Down in Texas the common method is to take the entire animal in to the ranch where a lot of camps have a game rig set up to gut and wash the animal out.  The guts are put in a wash tub and then just taken out and dumped in an out of the way spot.

Out in Wyoming we almosts always have to either quarter or debone the animal and back pack it out because of the distances and terrain involved.  Out there we have coyotes, fox, and other smaller critters to take care of everything left behind just like they do on lion kills.  As was said in other psosts, it justs depends on where you are and what you have to do to make the job easier and not kill yourself.  I chuckled when I read about the  guy cleaning an animal right near camp.  I think if that happened where I was set up that I would also be ready to bury the guy right next to the gutpile, LOL!!!  What an inconsiderate slob!!!

ohio, kansas.

i have left every gut pile ever in the woods. like 59, to be exact. the long and short is that scavengers survive on the guts, and taking them away decreases the amount of healthy scavengers that live in the ecosystem. without scavengers cleaning up kills, i'm afraid to ask what the consequences are to the ecosystem.

disease, starvation or some untold blight. coyotes, opossums, raccoons, rodents... everything uses a part of the carcass. whenever possible, i quarter the animal and leave the spinal column and ribs.

i don't use the rib meat off of smaller animals, so it's not that much of a loss. plus, my kill recotributes to the environment with protien and calcium.