ORIGINAL: djschuett

A few summers back while on I-94 in central MN, I saw a doe and fawn trying to cross 6 lanes of 70MPH highway. The doe made it, but the fawn got clipped pretty good by a car and went spiraling through the air.

I pulled over and my buddies and I started looking for the fawn. I found her about 30 feet off the road in some thick grass and from the look of things, she was laying right where she landed. She was still breathing and whimpering, however her front legs were both broken as was her left rear leg and femur was sticking through the skin. She also had blood coming out of her ear (in humans this virtually guarantees a skull fracture).

Knowing that she would likely be suffering for some time before either bleeding out internally or externally or starving to death/dying of dehydration, I decided putting her out would be the merciful thing to do, so I lifted her head with my boot, turned it around backwards as far as it would go and then pushed until I heard and felt her spine break. As much as it sucked to have to see an animal die needlessly, I slept better that night knowing that I had minimized her suffering rather than letting her suffer.