Not the Way to Begin an Evening

Last night was not one of my best nights.  Mainly it was compounded by one very sad annoying fact.  A woman who loved animals wouldn’t just take the hint to drive on and leave.  It would have eased and prevented an extra 40 minutes of suffering.

Let me start at the beginning, on my way home I rounded a bend on the highway and at the top of a hill there was a car on the side of the road with it’s 4 ways on.  At the last minute I saw the yearling lying in the middle of the road and swerved to avoid it.  I immediately pulled in in front of the car, grabbed flares out of the tool box lighting them up.  Some how in the process I burnt a shirt lighting them.  

While laying out flares for the deer it became quite clear to me how the night was going to end.  Broken spine, blood dripping from it’s snout and mouth.  The deer was trying to stand up but it’s rear legs wouldn’t move.  It was a bad situation for the deer.

I told the woman driver to go ahead and go home and I’ll take care of calling it in and reporting it.  She insisted on sticking around.  So the option of just dispatching the deer and moving it off the road is now out since I’ve got a witness who won’t be supportive.  I call Whitcom, inform them of the location and what’s happened, they attempt to connect me with WSP.  Every time they transfer the call, the call was lost.  I call Whitcom back, inform them the call was lost, and ask for the number for the WSP office handling the incident.  They tell me not to worry about it and just stay away from the deer.  I tell them again the deer is in the highway, alive, attempting to move, and needs to be dispatched.  He tells me to just wait for the officer.

I now begin the wait in the cold, the deer is obviously in a lot of pain and attempting to pull itself off the road whenever a semi rolls by.  It eventually pulls itself off the road and rolls down the embankment.  Wailing as it tumbles over.  Now that it’s off the road I kick the flares off the road.  The woman gets out of her car to ask what happened.  I tell her and suggest that she just go home.  She suggests that WSU could take the deer, I know that will never happen.

A firefighter rolls up on his way home.  He calls in and gets authorization from State Patrol to dispatch the deer.  At this point he comes back with his revolver and the woman decides now is the time to leave.  One of us got authorization from the state for what needed to have been done 35 minutes earlier.  He fires one shot hitting the deer in the head.

About 45 seconds later the WSP officer arrives.  The firefighter informs him he just dispatched the deer.  The cop is elated because he won’t have paperwork for discharging his service arm.  At about this point the deer starts groaning again and thrashing.  Now often animals will go into the death throws but this wasn’t just the twitch of the nervous system shutting down.  The firefighter had already put his weapon back in his vehicle.  The officer said, “I’ll go grab the shotgun.”  Without missing a beat I said, “Would you like me to save you the paperwork?”  His response was, “That would be great.  Need a flashlight?”

I walk down with my tac-lite and pull my XD.  I plug two at the base of it’s brain stem with the second making a obvious entrance wound.  Immediately it falls dead silent and only one leg continues to have a minor twitch.  At this point it’s been about 40 minutes since I arrived on the scene.  The deer has been removed from any pain that it did have and the whole way home I was nothing but pissed off because it took 40 minutes to get me permission from the state to do what was ethically best for the deer.

Had the woman left I would have just dropped the deer and pulled it off the road into the ditch.  From talking to the officer after, had the dispatcher given me the number I would have been authorized to dispatch the animal.

Thanks to this whole mess, I now have the Colfax State Patrol number in my wallet.  This is by no means how I wanted to end up shooting my first deer.  Doubly so since I got to listen to it suffer for 40 minutes.  40 minutes of suffering for the animal so someone could feel like they’re being a good Samaritan trying to save it.  

Blogging might be a bit light today and tomorrow.  I really wish I had just killed that deer on the spot.

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About TMM

TMM is the owner, editor, and principal author at The Minuteman, a competitive shooter, and staff member for Boomershoot. Even in his free time he’s merging his love and knowledge of computers and technology with his love of firearms. Many know his private name and information however due to the current political climate, many are distancing themselves due to the abandonment of Due Process.

11 Responses to Not the Way to Begin an Evening

  1. Weerdbeard says:

    “Animal Lovers” just like “Environmentalists” (quotes used because these people do all of their work with their hearts and not their brains) often end up doing more harm than good.

    I remember explaining to my little cousin when he was about 6 when hunting season had just started and he was upset about people shooting the deer:  “Would you rather all the deer starve to death in the winter because there isn’t enough food?  Would you rather people get hurt because they hit them with their cars?”

    BTW the Garden State Parkway at night is one of the scariest stretches of road out there.   At one point I saw 150 deer (all about the size of German Shepards) in about a span of 20 mins.   They all seemed content to graze on the side…I was terrified what would happen if I crested a bend to see a baker’s dozen of those little shits standing in the middle of the road.

    Yeah, they’re pretty.   Shoot them, there’s more, trust us!

    • Yeah, it just bugged the hell out of me she was so obsessed with saving the deer.  Yeah I’ve seen them save deer but usually the injuries were very minor.

      When he’s coughing up blood and can’t move off the road.  The inevitable end is coming, doubly annoying is if I dispatched the deer without the permission of the state they can confiscate the weapon I used (even the knife if I slit it’s throat), and write me a ticket for poaching, which can affect my ability to get a hunting license.

      I would have been fine just waiting on my tailgate after hauling the deer off the side of the road after shooting it.  I could have tried to pull it off but given it’s front hooves were still operational that would have probably injured me in one way or another.

      I just wish people would really think about the welfare of the animal.

      • Weerdbeard says:

        Or at least put things in prospective.  She obviously had no reference for biology.  She defers to the doctors to say what can be saved and what’s best to be taken behind the woodshed.

        That being said from your account Christopher Reeves had far more minor injuries from his fall from a horse, and he was a multi-millionare HUMAN, and he died a quad.

        This deer was DOA, and unfortunately what this woman did was spare it from some peace and dignity.

  2. Jennifer says:

    One of my coworkers sent around so some cute email with some fisherman playing with a young deer.  She made some comment about seeing something like that makes you think twice about how much you like deer meat.  I said no, seeing something like that reminds me that there isn’t enough food for them all to survive the winter.  They had to be thinned.  And as cute as it is, it’s concerning that it is so comfortable around people.

    • Yeah it’s funny.  When ever I see a deer, especially a yearling or doe and fawn, I make sure to act in a way that instills the humans are predator switch in the younger animal.

      Killing for the sake of killing disturbs me.  I am more than happy to though to kill the animal for food, pest control, or for population management reasons like you stated above.

      Wild animals aren’t pets and shouldn’t be viewed as such.  I love hiking through the woods and seeing wild deer.  That’s one reason I am willing to hunt them because I’d rather see a healthy population than a bunch of sick gangly deer.  People forget about that very important side of wild life management. 

      As I told one of my coworkers today, I have absolutely no qualms with myself over shooting that animal. I am angry with myself for not just biting the bullet and doing it sooner. Legal issues though said I couldn’t even though morally I damn well should have.

  3. Jorma says:

    Sounds like the same folks that cry crocodile tears for that poor deer you harvest for food that happily pick up a pound of hamburger at the grocery store. At least the deer lived free and did not grow up on a feed lot.

  4. Funkymonkey1111 says:

    Why not grow some stones and solve the problem on your own terms next time. 

    • Because it’s a felony, my gun can be confiscated, and I can loose my hunting rights.  Without authorization from the state, harvesting an animal is illegal, like it or not. Even if it’s wounded it is still technically harvesting the animal.

      If she would have left when I first told her I would have just done it and tossed it in the ditch. Having witnesses and being easily identifiable is a freaking problem.

      As you can see I didn’t like fucking waiting you douche ass hat of a fucking troll. Go fuck yourself.

    • Windy Wilson says:

      It is amazing to me how easy some people are with consequences when they fall on others. As an attorney you get clients who want you to do something to get them a win but that will get your ticket pulled. No thanks, I didn’t do the stupid things, so I don’t need to do stupid things to get your stupid ass out of the bind your stupidity put you in.
      More specifically to the matter at hand, You first, Funkymonkey. It’s easy to tell others to ignore the legal consequences of one’s acts in this legalistic litigious age.

      • Thank you Windy.  I also remembered something when I was on VC Friday night.  The prosecutor for the county had previously come after me for two felonies and I’m sure that he remembers my ass.  It’s not often a wreck shuts down the highway for 8 1/2 hours out here.

        The last thing I need to do is give them an inch because I know they’d take a mile.  I know the prosecutor is overzealous and willing to run with just about anything.  I played chicken on the felony counts and he blinked, though he would have had a difficult time proving it, but still.  Something like that though would be dangerous, doubly since I now know first hand there’s no such thing as winning a court case.  It’s just a difference in how badly you get screwed and whether or not the screwing continues after the trial.

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