I was driving home from a hunting trip early in the season one year, and up ahead in the traffic jam was a crippled buck and a half wrecked VW microbus.
I pulled over to see if anyone was hurt, besides the buck. The two motorists were fine, just shaken by the collision with the animal.
The buck was paralyzed from the middle of the back down, just sitting in the roadyway on his haunches. It was a 2x2 but a rather big one.
After all the jammed traffic was gone, and it was just the 3 of us and the crippled buck, I got my Remington 700 in 338 rem ultra mag out of the jeep, loaded it with one round, and shot the buck point blank in the heart. After which it lay in peaceful repose. The husband and I then dragged it out of the roadway and into the ditch.
Then I put the rifle back in the jeep and sped away.
Don't know what the laws of Monterey County Calif were then. I didn't hang around to find out.