What would you do . . . ?

[LckyTylr]

I was talking to a lady that I work with about her hunting trip this last weekend. She and her boyfriend were after deer with her boyfriends elderly father, he wanted to get one last buck. How cool is that? They got pretty lucky, as here in Idaho, there are a lot of road hunters (it seems), and the deer seem to be pretty savvy to this with the exception of the young-dumb-uns and ALL of the deer when they start to migrate to their wintering areas. I say they got lucky, because most of the mountains got several inches of snow before they went on their hunt. A large volume of deer (I'm told by them and other hunters) were already migrating along the ridgetops parallel to one of the road hunters favorite stretches. I guess it was somewhat of a shooting gallery for all. The elderly gentleman did in fact get a nice framed 3x3.

Here's the twist. While on their way out, they passed several dozen road hunters and they also came across a fawn that had been shot in a leg. It was non-life-threatening, and since it's an Antlerless ONLY tag for that area, nobody was comfortable putting it out of its misery.

So, as I brought up the subject of poaching in another thread, what do you do? There's no cell service to call a Conservation Officer, and the road is packed with people.

You could assume that everyone is looking at the situation as you are, that "It's a terrible thing that someone did this and didn't fix the situation, but I'm GOING to fix it" and dispatch the deer, bring it to your truck and try to go find a Conservation Officer. Or, you could assume that those road hunters are NOT to be trusted and that if you Do shoot that deer, someone will turn in your plate number for shooting a healthy deer that you obviously don't have a tag for.

What do you think? Anyone been in this situation before?

[>>>---WW---->]

Can't speak for Idaho, but here in Colorado you would legally need to contact a game warden before dispatching the deer. The warden would have to come and do it himself. But in many cases, he would most likely either give you permission or tell you to let nature have it's way. It is the wardens call, not yours.

[LckyTylr]

Yeah, the law is the same here in Idaho, and I would assume that the Game Warden would consider both options. But, what would you do?

It would be awfully tempting for me to wait for all of the road hunters to round the corners and speed up nature a little bit. I can't stand to see an animal suffer. I realize that nothing goes to waste in the mountains, but the mountains can be a cruel place, there's no reason not to help when we can. IMHO.

[dotman]

I hate seeing game wounded but it is not worth losing your lic over depending on the game warden. Not worth the risk and it would get taken care of eventually. I would be pissed though and call it in as soon as I could. Now if you wounded it, put it out of its misery gut and pack it out and turn yourself in.

[pointysticks]

i just read this exact scenario in that book MEAT EATER..they left it to die naturally. i think i would too...

here that animal was not legal to take. easier decision for us here.

[Wapiti]

I could just leave it to suffer !! It didn't ask to get shot in the leg !! That's not normal circumstances if you ask me. The laws need to change !! I would finish it off but that's just me !!