Wild Animal Euthanasia & CC?

[Canis-Lupus]

I live in an area where there's a lot of wild life roaming free. I get out of city limits and once in a while driving & carrying I come across a mortally wounded (by some other vehicle not around) moose, deer or elk and plenty of dead or dying coyotes, squirrels, skunks and racoons are common events. Without self-incriminating myself, I have taken action to end a terminally suffering animal's life, after 1 incident a few years back waiting 3-hours for the animal control officers to show up after I called it in, declare it FUBAR and euthanize it, then haul it away without so much as a thanks. Watching THAT much pain for 3 hours was tough :sad2: and playing traffic cop so other drivers would not run right into it again. Since then I've made some tough calls, humane ones but maybe not totally legal ones. Not much good dispatching a 1/2 ton elk :Image12: and even being able to drag it off the middle of a wooded winding country road. Put up hazard markers fore & aft of the scene and wait for LEO's or NSPCA types to show and ask for my hunting license standing there looking stupid :boom06: with a still hot pistol in my hand & trying to explain I wasn't hunting, just doing the bovine coup-de-grace could get me fried! Drive by and call it in 'not my job' just ain't me, or stop, few rounds to the skull & split, or if it's too big to move off the road wait for either my worse day on the road to unfold, or a pat on the back from some animal-cop. olice: I called the city cops: "Absolute 'NO-GO' let it suffer and no shooting within city limits!" To county sheriffs: "Depends on the officer, situation and you still run a risk of 'hunting without a license' and discharging a firearm within X-meters of something!" Hunting? "Yes officer, I was hunting that moose with my 18-wheeler Mack truck that ain't around right now, :54: but ain't it a beauty. Jerky anyone?" "Up against the car now & spread 'em!" Vague and confused answers @ best from protect & serve. I guess what I'm looking for is non-self incriminating feedback on how you may have dealt with a similar situation and what the outcome was. Any cops on USA Carry? I will understand if I get no replies to this and continue doing what fits the laws, my conscience/luck and the situation. Living real close to the boonies is nice but frigging animals do tend to mess up real nice drives through the woods. Even got deer-whistles on my SUV's front bumper, but I ain't the driver who turned Bambi into pulp-fiction and left it for me to find still breathing and crying out in agony. What's legal in one state probably gets me 5-years lock-up in another. Tough calls. Anyone got any good hints other than stay home?

Canis-Lupus :06:

 

[Glock Fan]

I clipped a Whitetail deer once while working in GA. I was armed and being a "concerned citizen", I called the game wardens. The response I got was "are you in a safe place?", "are you armed?", and "can you safely dispatch the animal without bullets flying into populated areas?". Answer was "yes", "yes", and "yes". They instructed me to dispatch the deer, dress the game and take whatever meat I wanted. Game enforcement officers arrived in an hour or so and took the skin, head, brain matter and everything that I didn't claim as edible.

What an experience. I'm glad that I took the insurance at the rental counter!




gf

 

[Cooter]

When I was about 6 or 7 yrs old. My dad and I were coming off a mountain road and saw a whitetail that was hit by a car and left to suffer. My dad doesn't carry a firearm, so he had to finish it off with a sledge hammer. Pretty gruesome for a little kid to witness, but he explained to me that it was the humane thing to do.
Luckily, I haven't had any experience with me in the driver seat yet. But I wouldn't be able to drive by and let an animal slowly die on the side of the road if I can help it. I would hope that a game warden would not think that I'm some poacher making an excuse to get away with killing a deer without a tag.

Canis-Lupus, I would say do the right thing. If the animal is as good as gone, then finish it off. God has your back as long as you are in the right.

 

[Scarecrow]

I clipped a Whitetail deer once while working in GA. I was armed and being a "concerned citizen", I called the game wardens. The response I got was "are you in a safe place?", "are you armed?", and "can you safely dispatch the animal without bullets flying into populated areas?". Answer was "yes", "yes", and "yes". They instructed me to dispatch the deer, dress the game and take whatever meat I wanted. Game enforcement officers arrived in an hour or so and took the skin, head, brain matter and everything that I didn't claim as edible.

What an experience. I'm glad that I took the insurance at the rental counter!




gf

sounds like you got lucky and talked with some one who actually cared! just letting a living being suffer and die a slow painful death is inhumane in my opinion.

 

[daddyo]

I came upon a scene a few years back where a car load of old ladies had clipped a small buck. Its back was obviously broken. It kept trying to get up on its front legs and the ladies were standing there staring at it and very distraught. I was carrying my .357 at the time. I considered stopping and putting it down, but was afraid the round might overpenetrate on a close range headshot and would the bounce off the pavement into who knows what (my dad drove it into my head not shoot toward anything that a bullet might bounce off of). I also figured the sheriff would be along soon and at best I would get a long talking to if not some sort of fine so ultimately I decided it wasn't worth the trouble and drove on.

BTW- I used to drive 500+ miles a week in Minnesota. I found the deer tend to ignore a single long horn blast, but a few quick toots and flashing lights will trigger their flight response, except for one BIG buck. I came over a rise and he just stood there. I stopped, and he started putting his head down and I think he was seriously taking on my Tahoe. Might have been a good fight, as I was pretty much eye-to-eye with him on 35's with a 2" lift. Anyway, I did my horn honking light flashing routine and he gave me this look like "Alright, I'll let you go THIS time, but I"D BETTER NOT CATCH YOU ON MY ROAD AGAIN!", and slowly sauntered off.

 

[kwo51]

If you guys see me lying by my Harley just honk and drive by please.

 

[mom of 3 angels]

Ran this situation by my husband who is a biologist for the div. of wildlife out here. He said absolutely don't shoot it and put it out of its misery, it would/could be treated as poaching with consequent fines/loss of hunt privileges, etc. He, as a DWR employee, can shoot it, but as non law enforcement can't give permission for others to do the same. He said even most LEO's won't shoot it--they want the DWR guys to take care of it. So the DWR officer (not biologist) is the ideal person to contact. I said, "even if you guys are half hour away?" and he said, "even if we're 4 hours away." Crazy, but hopefully he's with me if I ever run across one

As for the meat, I know those deer that get stuck in fences, break legs, etc and have to be put down are donated to families in need around here.

 

[toreskha]

My policy is: If I see an animal messed up and I can immediately put it down without anyone seeing or any complications, then I do so on the spot. The bullets don't have my name on them, and I consider the incident to be an issue between me and the animal, and the animal isn't talking. Then I get lost, and no one is the wiser. If there's people around, then I'll call Fish & Wildlife and let them handle it - but I rarely see half-dead animals. I won't get caught showing my gun in public, much less discharging it without a self-defense reason.

Once I hit a raccoon...it went right under my car. I was pretty sure it wasn't dead, because it seemed like the undercarriage clipped its back. I backed up, and it was on the side of the road making some pretty awful noises and its eyes were looking right at me. It was about 1 AM and the road was deserted, so I pulled my shotgun out and plugged it twice to make sure. The next day, I didn't see anything left; either it had been picked up, eaten by scavengers, or the buckshot had just blasted it to pieces.

I don't know about everyone else, but the game wardens in my area just don't seem to do much animal euth, and they're definitely not going to take it to rehab. If this were CA and there were hippies who'd rescue the thing, then I would hold out some hope for that, but there's no point in making the animal wait for 30 minutes before finally deciding to do the deed.