Mercy Killing

[ELMER J. FUDD]

I have a doe with a broken leg on one of the properties I hunt. It's all there, just hangs and flops around. She lays the 1st joint (knee?) gingerly each time she steps. I spooked her to see how well she ran and to my surprise she takes good 3 legged strides. I feel somewhat obligated to take her. I'm on the fence with this one. There are however 2 fawns with her, one is still spotted. What would you do?

[Culvercreek hunt club]

I have seen 3 legged deer run and keep up with 4 legged ones. If she makes it to the season she would probably survive. That said, if she presented me a shot and I had a tag during season I would take her.

[BizCT]

A friend of my Dad's once shot a 3 legged gray fox, it was completely healed over. He must have lived like that for years....It was a really cool full body mount.

[NFA-ADK]

Each situation is differant, easy to say on web site that I would take it but I would have to be in the situation at the time to make up my mind. If they seem ok and are in no danger I would let them go. If severe enough do a mercy killing...

[Doc]

I shot a 3-legged doe once that was the healthiest, fattest, deer I ever have killed. She stayed around the thicket in front of the house and was living large on the lower lawn that I mow. She had a fawn and seemed to be getting along just great with her handicap. When she bounded out of the field, you couldn't even tell that she was only running on 3 legs. When I dressed her out, she had gobs and gobs of fat. My guess is that she pretty much stayed in the low-lands where food and water and cover were plentiful and just like a couch potato, she just hung around getting fat. The 4th leg was severed at the "elbow", and a pad of skin very much like that of a dog's paw had grown over the wound. How long since she lost that leg, I don't know.

However, the major difference between that deer and the one you are talking about was that what ever happened to her leg, it would appear that it was taken right off, where the deer you are talking about has a chunk of useless leg still attached that may be re-injuring internal muscle, and may also be festering and turning gangrenous. When the season is right, I would make her a priority. By then, her fawns will be self-sufficient (which they almost are now). Understand that you have no legal right to shoot her now regardless of how good your intentions are. So, if you were to act on this "mission of mercy", it probably would not be a good idea to say so on a public forum .... lol.

[growalot]

We've had several ..unfortunately...3 legged mommas on our hill....each one had a few years where they produced fawns before some one shot them...they were very smart in their movements and the most alert deer in the area...they were also solitary and stayed apart from the herd in the field...yet the fawns would interact with the other deer...I always figured if they were strong enough to over come the injury...breeding ..winter and fawning...they darn well deserved to live as long as possible....just MO

[nyantler]

I killed a big 8-point once that I later determined must have been hit by a car... his leg was broken just above the hoof at the knuckle... and both g-2's were snapped off at the beam at exactly the same spot. Probably where his antlers hit on the road. I tracked for hours until finally getting to a hemlock stand where he left all the signs that he was about to lay down.. I stared into the hemlocks for about 5 minutes before he finally jumped up about 30 yards away I shot him on a dead run going away from me. His leg was completely blackened and hanging on by just the skin so he'd been like that for some time... the whole time I was tracking him I could tell something was up with him , but couldn't place my finger on just what it was... the snow was too deep to tell that he was just walking on the stub of his leg... my point I guess is that he did everything that a healthy buck would do... feeding and everything along his path... he ran as well as any buck I've ever seen spooked out of his bed... the area that I tracked him in had signs of a group of hunters having hunted the area most of the day... from the different foot prints I could tell there were at least 6-7 guys and they had been making drives in the area... the group actually walked out of the woods together along a trail that passed within 25 feet of where the buck had been laying... I think he just layed there and let them walk by... I wouldn't have shot him had I not seen his rack when he jumped up... so some bucks are hard to tell in certain situations whether they're hurt or not... and I can't be sure that he wouldn't have survived just fine had I not killed him.

[apoallo]

One of my first doe ever taken was dragging its rear end using the front 2 legs through the woods during my first bow season. I took her, turns out she had a chrushed pelvis , butcher said it was move than likely from getting hit by a car. If i didnt take her then the yotes would have, so i feel i save her from pain and angoy when they ate her alive.......she tasted great thou!!

[wheelieman]

saw a buck last year that was hit by a car its jaw hanging walking into trees falling down couldnt even use one of his legs, I thought long and hard knowing this buck was gonna die, only probly was when the buck i harvested ran threw the woods and crashed, This guy came stumbling by from the direction my bowshot buck went down a few minutes after my buck expired, I ended up letting him go the next day he was half eaten on the edge of the hay field, It keeps me wondering if i made the right decision, But i dont know, Nobody knows how that buck spent the last few hours of is life,

[Rev Ev]

If it were during hunting season I would take her over a healthier deer. Outside of season, I might call a GW if it was bad enough. I tend to let nature take its course with most everything.

[WNYBuckHunter]

The only times I put deer down as "mercy" killings is if I have a tag for them anyway, or if its a road hit deer thats obviously going to die anyway. The rest I just let nature take its course.

[bubba]

I see no need to get in the way of mother nature. If I had a tag I would take the deer. Otherwise it walks.

[pawle76]

Years back we had a hunter wound a big doe on state land and she crossed onto our property. For whatever reason this hunter stopped tracking the deer when he came to our property line. Instead of asking permission to continue tracking he just left. So a few of us went out to see if we could find what he hit. At the time we didn't know what it was. Thanks to the snowfall we could see that it was bleeding very badly. We tracked it until sundown and came back the next morning. I finally caught up to it and I saw that she was missing one of her rear legs. I couldn't believe she was still alive with all the blood loss. I finally pinned her in down in a deep ravine with a stream. I stood there watching her thinking what I should do because none of us had a doe tag. The way she was still bleeding and the fact that she couldn't make it up the steep bank to get out of there I felt there was only one thing to do. So I put her down and we took both of her hind quarters to eat. At first I was going to take the whole deer but I figured I would leave the critters their cut. We contacted the Game Warden in our area and told him what we did. He said it wasn't a problem. We ate great the next 2 weeks back at the cabin !