dpv

Came home from the book store late with the wife. Just in front of our house a dear had just been hit. it was floundering in the road and trying to get up. A truck up ahead had stopped and the person was checking their car for damage. They got back in and drove away. I called the police and they said they' d have a police officer come by to kill it. (They don' t want a civilian discharging a firearm in a neighborhood.) It' s a very rural neighborhood, but a gunshot that late will make a lot of noise. I got my Crossbow and went it out next to the end of the driveway and waited for the officer. It took 45 minutes. It was slowly draggin' itself into the woods about 10 feet from the road.it was about midnite. I told the officer I would finish it so it wouldn' t make noise. took him a few minutes to make up his mind but I ended up putting one thru it' s lungs and probly taking out the heart too. IT was a button buck about 80-90 lbs I would guess. Died quick. it sucked. I think next time, I might just not call. Could have ended it' s suffering much faster on my own schedule. Just wanted to make sure I didn' t have legal issues. Now, I' m waiting for the Highway people to come take it away ( I dragged it back up on the road so they would).

DPV

MATTHEWS

Was there any chance you could of kept the deer without much hassle? Could of been some good eating.

dpv

Truth is I could have easily shot it with my bow or bashed it' s head in and dragged it up my driveway or thru the woods next to the driveway. I' ve never cleaned an animal this time of year in this kind of tempurature. Also, I have heard (wivestales? ) about parasites that get in the animals during the hotter months.
I would guess that I could have some serious legal issues if someone had reported me taking the animal out of season for personal use......not sure how the wife would feel about eating road kill. Also, what with it suffering like that and being so bashed up (broken left hip/rear leg) I just wasn' t up for it.

DPV

Tazman

Well I have been lucky over the years and never had to put one down, I know it had to have been hard, but you did the right thing.

ArcticBowMan

I put a calf moose down in the fall of 2001 after it was hit by a truck. The driver kept on going, and the moose was dragging itself accross the road. I only had my knife with me, so I used that to put the moose down. We called the troopers and they contacted the salvage crew and the moose was salvaged that night.

I hate to see them die like that, but better to just put them down and get the suffering over with.

JKT

Had to do that too many years ago, a tire iron was all I had, not easy to do and it always stays with you, or it has me anyway.

Thundergut

There was a local police department here in NE Ohio last week that put up the pics of a bear that was hit by a truck. Bad thing is that they were snapping the pics while the bear was trying to drag itself off the road. It was sickening that they' d let it suffer so they could get their pics in first. Times like that, I' d take things into my own hands.

Here is the URL to the pics, they are pretty disturbing, you may not want to look at them.

http://www.orwellpolice.com/bear.htm

I sent them a nasty email, but they didn' t find the need to respond.

dpv

I guess they needed to have evidence that the bear was crippled and unable to survive before they could shoot it. They do catch it from animal rights groups sometimes. But I agree that it was disgusting. Well I' m glad to see the oppinions of others here. I was surprised that I didn' t sleep well last night. Nothing that would stop me from hunting again but it just hung with me a little. I' m not gonna start singing Kumbiya and hugging trees or nothin, but you guys get the point.

David

Proff

A few years ago in spring a friend called from his cell phone and said that he had just hit a doe about 3 miles from my house and that she was out in a field still alive but couldn' t get up. I called the State Patrol and they said that they would send someone out as soon as they could but it would be a little while. I explained the situation and the dispatcher gave me permission to finish the doe off. I grabbed my bow and got right over there. He had hit her in the rear end broke her back hips. She was trying to get up and I heart shot her. I just turned around till she was dead. I told him that she would probably have fawns in her, and sure enough she did. I could feel two perfectly formed fawns in her placenta when I gutted her. Man you talk about feeling crappy. The worst one ever was one time me and 2 buddies and one of their fiances had to go out and kill a little yearling doe that some idiot road hunters had shot off the road during gun season here, and took off when the farmer ( one of my buddies brother in law) came out to get their plate number. The next day he was taking off corn and one big doe was laying dead and this poor thing had both front legs blown off rightabove the knees. It was laying there in shock, and shaking. It was so scared. we shot her as fast as we could and his fiance sat down and held its head while it died and cried. I am not ashamed to admit that there were 3 bowhunters with tears in their eyes that day. I never ever want to go through that agin. You wouldn' t believe the things we wanted to do to those jerks!!

don loch

Unfortunately a couple of years back I had to put a nice doe down. It was gun season and someone chased her out on a lake (frozen). She fell and could not get up. She was too far out to try to get so they left her. By the time I found out about her it was several hours latter. I tried to walk out there but the ice kept cracking, so I got off, she was too far out to shoot safely (over 600 yds) without bullets bouncing all over. I finally went and drank some more confidence fluid and then grabed a float vest, rope and a long 2x4 incase I fell thru the ice, I didnt want her to suffer any longer or get torn apart by coyotes that nite.
Got her back to shore, with a few extra skid marks in my shorts, and called the D.N.R to come out and put her down, it was after hours know. They said they didnt have time. They asked me to club her, because it was too late to shoot. I told them to kiss my butt and hung up. I tried to get the old girl to get up one last time but her back legs were busted.
Hunter to hunters I' ll tell you all the truth, I actually started to cry out of pure frusteration just to get her up. It was no use. Some other hunters were there and they ended up taking her, no way I could after that.