So sad....but had to be done

[fellini123]

Tonight DH and I were on our way home, it was about 10 PM and we were about 1/4 mile from our house, right on the main highway. We saw a car with its hazard lights blinking and we slowed down and drove by. In front of the car was a beautiful buck, about 5 points on each antler. He was laying down, but had his head up looking puzzled.
We turned around and drove back, we asked the guy in the car if he was all right. He said yes that he was coming around the curve and saw the buck laying on the side of the road.
The guy went to look at the buck and he had been hit and all four legs were demolished, just basically gone. They guy had a bow in his trunk, but no he wasnt spotlighting or anything. Or if he was he was awfully dressed up to do it!!!
He shot the buck quickly and cleanly so at least he was put out of his misery. Broke his arrow too.
I know if was probably not legal, but he said he would like to use the meat, so we helped to load him in the trunk of the car. Ever see a full grown buck in the trunk of a Honda?
He was beautiful, it is a shame he was hit, but it was the kindest thing to do for him. RIP big boy.
Alice in Virginia

[SJSFarm]

I follow the law, intent and letter. However, if dispatching an injured animal is illegal, I will not follow mans law, but gods law. It's the merciful thing to do. Wasting the meat is also in violation of gods law, as I see it. He provided this animal and its death shall provide for another.
I thank you for helping that poor creature.

[willielisa]

I'm so sad he was suffering, but so thankful he was put down. Once I was taking my kids to school and I passed a squirrel who was on the yellow line. You could tell he'd been hit and his back legs weren't working, but with his front legs he was trying desperately to get up. I went by so fast it didn't register with me, but when I came back through a few minutes later, not only was he still there, but a buzzard was sitting on the site of the road staring at him. I took a deep breath, tried to look straight ahead ( not at the squirrel) and aimed for his head with the front tire. That was over 5 years ago and it still haunts me. We hunt, shoot predators, and process chickens, but to see that squirrel suffering was more than I could stand.

[SJSFarm]

Willielisa, my heart goes out to you. You already know you did the right thing. It's so hard tho because we NEVER want to harm. But in my mind, doing nothing is more harm.

[Nimrod]

I met my local game warden when he came to talk to the Firearms Safety class that I was helping teach. I have his number on speed dial.

It's illeagle to shoot a deer that has been hit on the road. You have to call a game warden to come out and finish it off. If you want to take it home and eat it you have to get a permit from him too.

The local game warden has a common sense approach to dilemmas. I bet he would OK shooting a wounded deer if he couldn't make it soon and you called him and explained.

[unregistered353870]

I don't even know the law about this in my state, but I'm not taking the time to call anyone to ask before I shoot an injured animal. That will add a minute or more of unnecessary suffering if I get a yes, and even more if they tell me no. I definitely wouldn't take the meat without knowing it's OK though. It would be a shame for it to go to waste, but it would be a bigger shame for me to go to jail.

[PrettyPaisley]

Is "shooting" with a bow illegal, or just shooting in the road with a gun? I am honestly curious ...

[GunMonkeyIntl]

Originally Posted by PrettyPaisley

Is "shooting" with a bow illegal, or just shooting in the road with a gun? I am honestly curious ...

Laws vary by state, but "shooting" is not generally the illegal factor - "killing" is. Though, in most states, discharging a firearm within a certain distance of the road is an offense of its own.

Game animals are considered state-owned natural resources, and there are very explicit laws detailing how they can be harvested. To harvest an animal, you have to have the appropriate license, do it at the appropriate time of year, dispatch it with the appropriate weapon, and harvest it from an appropriate place. In most states, the only circumstance in which it would be legal to kill a game animal that was hit by a car is if it ran onto your property (or land you have permission to hunt on), during the hunting season for that animal, during the allowed hours for hunting, you kill it with the appropriate type of weapon for that season, and you apply your game tag to it. Short of meeting all of those criteria, killing a hit game animal is generally illegal.

The reason that the state wants a game warden to dispatch the animal is that they want someone with training in wildlife biology to determine that the animal can't reasonably be expected to survive before putting it down. Now, of course, common sense usually tells us all we need to know, and our conscience tells what is the right thing to do. But, the laws have to be black and white for a reason.

As much as I hate the idea of wasting meat, the guy who took the carcass was taking a really big risk. If he had killed it and left it, and the law caught up with him, he could probably explain that he couldn't leave the animal there to suffer and put it down in a safe and humane way. On the other hand, taking it with him meant that he was in posession of an untagged antlered deer that was killed, with a bow, after legal hunting hours (they can check its temperature and tell when it died). It would be on him to prove that he didn't poach it and run over the legs after the fact. Even if he did convince them that he didn't poach it, they would still have him dead to rights on breaking the law regarding dispatching a car-struck game animal.

In that scenario, I think you have to take the conscience compromise: put it down, and leave the meat for the coyotes - they gotta eat too.

[SJSFarm]

GunMonkey has explained the situation perfectly. He is right, and logical. This situation does not come up frequently. Many people who hit a deer and those that stop to help, don't want the meat- or it's to damaged.
I would hope common sense would prevail. Should I be in the circumstance as Fellini was, I would do what she did. I would however, leave my info with that person, should he find himself in legal trouble.

[flowergurl]

There are HUGE fines for having a deer that you have no tag for.
I wouldn't take the chance, I would call a game warden.

[Jennifer L.]

Huh. People poach deer all the time around here, and believe me, the game warden is always on the other side of the county.

I'd NEVER worry about putting an animal down myself if I had the means with me to do it. I don't think I'd take the meat, though. Not legal and probably not very good after having been through an accident, anyway. Still, I don't really blame the people who would as it's a shame the animal's death served no purpose. I know, I'm arguing both sides! It's a hard situation.

[opportunity]

Originally Posted by jtbrandt

I don't even know the law about this in my state, but I'm not taking the time to call anyone to ask before I shoot an injured animal. That will add a minute or more of unnecessary suffering if I get a yes, and even more if they tell me no. I definitely wouldn't take the meat without knowing it's OK though. It would be a shame for it to go to waste, but it would be a bigger shame for me to go to jail.

They changed the law in Montana the week before Thanksgiving you can take home and eat deer, elk and antalope but nothing else it has to be fore human consumption (no dog food). Your not supposed to kill it if it's only hurt but that seems silly it will die anyway might as well use it

[simi-steading]

You can take a roadkill deer in VA home, but, you have to call the police to report the accident so you have proof you can have the deer without a tag on it..

Also, shooting the deer yourself isn't legal...

[wy_white_wolf]

In Wyoming you need to call the Highway Patrol before killing or taking a road hit animal. While they are supposed to dispatch the animal, I have heard of them letting others do it if they know it'll be awhile before they can get there. Also, only supposed to let the one that hit it take the animal.

Your hunting tag is supposed to be kept with all game even when it's in the freezer. They will issue you a permit to keep with the meat so you don't end up in trouble with the Game & Fish for illegally taking game.

WWW

[Steve in PA]

When I read all of these convoluted game laws I think back to the mideval era when the forests and the animals in them were all property of the king and no one was allowed to hunt or take game from his forests without permission.

The king (and the state) have done nothing to raise those animals that were placed there by God. But, they will do everything the can to squeeze tribute (money) from you.

your did the right thing by putting down the suffering animal.

[joebill]

Count on me to turn a tragedy into a few meals with no apologies.......Joe

[GunMonkeyIntl]

Originally Posted by Steve in PA

When I read all of these convoluted game laws I think back to the mideval era when the forests and the animals in them were all property of the king and no one was allowed to hunt or take game from his forests without permission.

The king (and the state) have done nothing to raise those animals that were placed there by God. But, they will do everything the can to squeeze tribute (money) from you.

That is a pretty skewed and hyperbolic view on modern hunting laws. At the founding of our country, the lack of hunting laws/enforcement and habitat destruction brought common game animal counts to dangerous lows in many areas. As recently as the 1970s and 80s, single deer tags were the norm in many areas, and antlerless deer were strictly off limits in order to keep populations from dwindling further.

Now, with modern, scientifically informed state-management of the wild resources, funded by the FET on guns and ammo sales, and game populations have never been better. Reference this recent thread:
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/gen...-wildlife.html

I hunt my own land, so I don't have to pay for my tags, but I am allowed to take two antlered deer, and four antlerless - and I could fill every one of them in short order. If I chose to fill those six tags, I could go and get more antlerless tags for free. The deer populations are too high, and the state is hoping for hunters to help bring them down.

Without the laws in place, if hunters were left to their own devices, the woods would most likely be a barren and dangerous place, as referenced in this recent thread:
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/gen...etiquette.html

I own 45 acres, and would harvest wildlife from my land responsibly in the absence of game laws, but I could not count on my neighbors to do the same. My woods would be barren, too, in short order if not for the game laws.

I know this is a little off-rail in the discussion of how to deal with car-struck game animals, but that is one convoluted aspect of an otherwise sensible and effective set of laws - likely one of the few remaining areas where our government actually does a good job and provides the service advertised.

[motdaugrnds]

I have little respect for anyone who would let a wounded animal suffer while he made phone calls, maybe sitting on "hold" for awhile. Thus, I'm glad the guy killed that deer and don't care what weapon he used to do it with.

I would have then called the game warden as one look at that deer's demolished legs would be proof enough the arrow was only an act of conscience! Also, that meat would not have spoiled if it were left until the warden gave permission to carry it off for food. (In some areas it is better to go with the law than regret not doing so later.)

[Danaus29]

In Ohio shooting near or on a road can get you 6 months jail time. Not sure about a bow but it doesn't make any noise so no one would know you did it.