While hunting in a doe only area. I had a 2yr old buck limp within 15yds of me with a broken front leg, that was just dangling there. I'm pretty certain it wasn't broken from an awry hunting shot, as I didn't notice a wound. The poor bastard was on the lean side and didn't appear as though it would last through a Northern Illinois winter.

What would have been the appropriate thing to do?
Put it down, and potentially face prosecution from a bent GW?
or
Do nothing, and let nature take it's course?

I did nothing, and feel like a shithead for letting the animal suffer.

I'd have probably dropped him, field dressed the animal and went and found a game warden. Colorado has a program in effect that basically states you will not be charged for an "Accidental" kill. They investigate and if the warden deems no malicious intent, they take the carcass and send you on your way. The important thing is that you take care of it and don't let it go to waste.

I know several game wardens and I doubt they would issue a ticket for a humane end to a cripple, but they would take possesion of the carcass and have it utilized for the poor.

Mac

This is a very difficult situation as the chances of survival are unknown. It would depend to some extent on the level of predation, and to some extent on the actual cause of the "break." Living in an area of high deer car collisions we have seen way too many "crippled" deer which have gone on to lead longer and in one case extremely productive lives. I would not have though so previousily. One doe in particular lived for an additional 8 years and gave birth to 9 fawns. All on three legs. Another fawn lost a front leg and was seen for two additional years. As I think of it now,life is so precious that even under adverse conditions, let God decide.

quote:

Originally posted by 308Sako:
This is a very difficult situation as the chances of survival are unknown. It would depend to some extent on the level of predation, and to some extent on the actual cause of the "break." Living in an area of high deer car collisions we have seen way too many "crippled" deer which have gone on to lead longer and in one case extremely productive lives. I would not have though so previousily. One doe in particular lived for an additional 8 years and gave birth to 9 fawns. All on three legs. Another fawn lost a front leg and was seen for two additional years. As I think of it now,life is so precious that even under adverse conditions, let God decide.

Coyotees and bears gotta eat too you know. Let a hungry predator do the nature's work if the deer is sick, otherwise it may live a long life like 308Sako states above.

I guess what you have to do is ask yourself the worst case scenario. What's worse, feeling like a shithead, or getting cited or arrested by a GW with a burr up his ass. While your feelings are noble and the ethical thing to do would be to put the animal down, it isn't the legal thing to do.

Ultimately, if taken before a judge, all they have to do is ask one question: Sir, did you shoot a deer illegally or not?

I think letting him walk was the thing to do. Shooting him wasnt legal. If he had fever and was skinny he wouldnt have been freezer worthy. Deer are tough animals and he might make it.
I did the same thing once and dont regret it.

There was a time I had 43 acres of PA wooded land. There was a time when my dog found a deer that a hunter had almost blown a rear leg off of. I didn't have a gun with me and I didn't go get one either since I would have been in violation of wildlife laws.

quote:

Originally posted by 308Sako:
... let God decide....

God supposedly chose-decided to put us here and gave us the responsibility of power of choice and decision...to use sound judgement in deciding our course of action. sometimes there are only a few moments between two very different decisions/outcomes... but that my friend, is entirely up to the individual according to individual circumstance.
if the animal was infront of you now a second time, what would you do afro?

1st off, thank's eveyone for the responses.

To answer Woodjacks question. Limping off into the sunset I'D let it hobble off and have a 50/50 chance.

Crawling off, I'd not hesistate in putting it down. I'd have no remorse over my actions nor would I fear any reprisals from some over zealous GW or Judge.

Where I live there are no wolves cougers or bears.There are very few yotes around here.That being said..........I have killed every deer that I have seen while hunting that has shown that it was crippled or hurt.Some werent legal in the "laws" eyes but were in every way "right" in mine.

Tough call. Part of me says, 'why risk getting skewered for breaking the law, even when trying to doing something you think is right', and 'animals can and do live on with horrific wounds that appear to be a death sentence; leave it'. The other part of me says, 'screw the law on this one; the important thing is to end that animal's suffering'. I've been in a similar situation (albeit with a different animal) before, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I chose to risk the consequences under the law to do what I thought was the right thing.

Would I do it again? I dunno'.

I would have killed it, even if I had left the caecass for the scavangers.. I do not like to see an animal suffer.

Going to go against the appearent grain - I'd let him walk. If he was down maybe I'd finish him but as long as he's abulatory no matter how much "pain" there may appear to be, there is still the possibility of recovery. Rules are rules and even if we don't agree with them, once broken you're suspect if not assumed guilty. In the absence of rock solid witnesses (excluding your kid, wife or uncle Gerry) it'd be hard to convince a hard-nosed GW. Better to let him walk no matter how hard than risk a charge over a deer - especially if autopsey reveals the original injury was from a bullet. The GW has heard em all; putting it out of its misery, ricochette, shoot through, and a host of plausable but unlikely "excuses." Unfair to those who it really does happen to but unfortunately the bad apples made it this way. With an iron clad witness or on private land where you control all access maybe... maybe, otherwise he's on his own to live or die!

Each person has to live with their own conscience. I'm quite certain what I would've done. In British Columbia Canada you most definitely will get charged, if an animal hit by a car is laying there and you want to put it out of its misery with a tire iron or whatever, the game warden will charge you for killing an animal with out the appropriate license. If you happen to shoot the animal you will also be charged with discharging a firearm within a quarter-mile of a highway.

Lots of silly laws everywhere I'm sure.

I agree that it's a tough call. I work with lots of game wardens, and some would be pretty sympathetic and some would not. Some hunt and fish and know what the woods are like, some never held a firearm (or bow) before going to cop school. That's one consideration. The other is the likelihood of the animal surviving. Northern Illinois winters are pretty mild and high-quality food is widely availible (it's farm country.) Hunting here in Southern Wisconsin I've shot a fair number of deer that, judging by the scars and healed bones, had suffered injuries that probably looked pretty bad when they were fresh' but the animal obviously recovered. We had a doe running around our neighborhood for a few years that only had three legs, which means that one was shot off, or fell off as a result of injury and subsequent putrification. She always had at least two fawns with her in the spring.

Bottom line is that they are a lot tougher than domestic animals and very likely will recover from a broken leg. Do you want to risk legal penalty for doing what you believe is "right" but may actually be unncessary?

quote:

Originally posted by afro:
.....What would have been the appropriate thing to do?
Put it down, and potentially face prosecution from a bent GW?
or
Do nothing, and let nature take it's course?

I did nothing, and feel like a shithead for letting the animal suffer.

Your heart is in the right place.

HOWEVER, if you put it down and was to get pinched by a zealous GW in Wisconsin, you would have suffered a minimum $2300 fine and a mandatory loss of hunting privileges for 3 years.

How would you feel then???

Jim

Everyone has to make their own decisions, I make them all the time and their legality is not the prime component in many of them.

That said, deer recover from some amazing wounds and many deer break legs, heal up, and live several more years. I'd have let him walk knowing that he'd likely die, but likely is not certainty.

Change the situation a bit, where his leg was essentially shot off and dangling, I'd have killed him. If I was worried about legal consequences, I'd have let him lie.

What was the outcome of a million similar cases when you, an unnatural presence in the deer's biosphere, were not present to be confronted with this ethical delimma? The answer is, of course, that the deer (bear, elk, brontosaurus) went on its way in those million other cases, for better or for worse.

Killing the deer "for its own good" is anthropomorphizing a wild animal and presumes that only through the intervention of man will the "right" thing happen. Would the deer have "wanted" to be killed if it had the capacity to understand that you could relieve its suffering? I doubt it, and would think that the deer's instict to evade your lethal force would have been just as strong as if it had not been gravely wounded.

Bottom line: Shooting the deer would have only made YOU feel better, not the deer. Letting it walk, if you didn't actually want to reduce it to your own possession, was the "right" thing to do.

i killed a decent 8 point in Arkansas year before last that had 3 legs. the missing leg had been shot off and he had healed up perfectly. he was , in fact, pushing 3 does when i shot him and had just cleard a 5 strand barbwire fence.

quote:

Originally posted by KSTEPHENS:
i killed a decent 8 point in Arkansas year before last that had 3 legs. the missing leg had been shot off and he had healed up perfectly. he was , in fact, pushing 3 does when i shot him and had just cleard a 5 strand barbwire fence.

You've done gone and killed somebody's larder deer! You see, in Arkansas, you just don't eat a good deer all at once. Eating just one leg at a time negates the need for refrigerating the rest of the carcass until you need more meat.

Several years ago, I was pheasant hunting with my son on some State ground, when we jumped a little 2-pt mule deer. The deer ran about 10 yds then fell down and struggled to get up. It was the second weekend of the Montana big game season, and apparently the deer had been wounded a couple of days earlier by another hunter and had got away. The femur of his right rear leg had been broken by the bullet. The only shells I had with me that day were 12 ga trap loads, but a full choke load of 7 1/2's between his eyes at 15 feet put him out of his misery. I put my deer tag on him and ended my deer season early.

quote:

You've done gone and killed somebody's larder deer!

Stonecreek that is funny!

quote:

Originally posted by Harris:

quote:

Originally posted by 308Sako:
This is a very difficult situation as the chances of survival are unknown. It would depend to some extent on the level of predation, and to some extent on the actual cause of the "break." Living in an area of high deer car collisions we have seen way too many "crippled" deer which have gone on to lead longer and in one case extremely productive lives. I would not have though so previousily. One doe in particular lived for an additional 8 years and gave birth to 9 fawns. All on three legs. Another fawn lost a front leg and was seen for two additional years. As I think of it now,life is so precious that even under adverse conditions, let God decide.

Coyotees and bears gotta eat too you know. Let a hungry predator do the nature's work if the deer is sick, otherwise it may live a long life like 308Sako states above.

I agree with these. I would have let it walk too.

I shot a buck antelope the other day, way out on a road going to my friends ranch, it had a broken back and was on the other side of the borrow ditch I shot it with my 22 and left it, Legal?? no, ethical IMHO yes.

I filled my elk tag this year with a 3 legged cow I found in a heard. It was a older wound and was healed. In fact she was missing her leg from the dew claws down. I saw her and thought she was wounded from the season that had just ended. Oh well, she is in the freezer now. Ron

It would all depend the wound and the situation as to what I would do. Very rare that a game warden is going to be sitting watching you shoot it. If you were to shoot it zip your lip. Not exactly rocket science here.

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:

quote:

Originally posted by KSTEPHENS:
i killed a decent 8 point in Arkansas year before last that had 3 legs. the missing leg had been shot off and he had healed up perfectly. he was , in fact, pushing 3 does when i shot him and had just cleard a 5 strand barbwire fence.

You've done gone and killed somebody's larder deer! You see, in Arkansas, you just don't eat a good deer all at once. Eating just one leg at a time negates the need for refrigerating the rest of the carcass until you need more meat.

Very thought provoking situation. Nature on its own can be very cruel to the observer. I often wondered how people filming nature ducumentaries feel when they see such scenarios. If hunter inflicted, I would FEEL an oblication to finish it off. Keep in mind those feelings are ours, not nature's. There is a consequence to every action or inaction. Tough one. I once saw a doe lying on a road with just her head up after being hit by a car. I thought she would have to be put down, but after about 10 minutes she got up and bounded away like nothing happened. True, she may have had bad internal injuries, but she was obviously lactating, and she and her fawns at least had a chance.

While I stated my position earlier, I have learned at least a little bit from this discussion. Especially to avoid taking someone's larder deer. LOL

Truly each and every situation is unique unto itself. However, as individuals are we the final answer, or are we just answering to ourselves.