Ethical question

[bankwalker]

My dad hit a deer the other day at slow speed. Knowing the animal would be suffering i attempted to track it down to put it down if it looked mortally wounded. Sadly/thankfully i found the tiny deer dead about 20yds off the road. It helped to know the little guy didn't suffer for to long. It was less then a hour

I really don't care if its breaking the law. If i see a mortally wounded animal i will always ease it's suffering. If thats wrong......i don't want to be right.

[Arteman]

This is kind of off track from subject, but an example of why I say sometimes breaking the law doesn't make you unethical.  Heres another stupid law!  About a month and a half ago a buddy and I was walking down a logging road, a cow elk was in it and as we got close she tried to run, clearly her back leg was snapped in half up high as it was doing the helicopter, she was pretty sick, it was a horrible thing to watch.  We tried to give her time to clear the road so we could go on but she wouldn't, so we started walking, she stumbled off the road about ten yards and stopped, as i walked by I could see the whites in her eyes as they were bulging out, clearly freaked out.  I just turned my head and couldn't watch, and we kept going.  My buddy told me I should pull my pistol out and end her.  I said screw that, not getting in trouble by putting a elk out of misery.  3 days later she was dead about 50 yards farther up the road.  I'm sure she suffered greatly, and over the weeks I watched all the meat turn into coyote crap, what a waste.  The ethical thing would have been to shoot her, call a gamie, show him why I shot her, then help field dress and load the meat for the needy.  We all know it dont work that way though.

No doubt in my mind I would've shot that elk.

I sure wouldn't try to call and report it to anyone after doing so, however.

Next time put her out of her misery, I bet you'll sleep better at night. And don't worry about wasting the meat, coyotes gotta eat too.

At the time Bobcat I didn't think it was a good idea, I would have laid her down right in the road.  Of coarse not knowing at the time that's where she would end up anyways.  Off the beaten path, same situation I wouldn't hesitate.

[Arteman]

As far as ethics are conserned, sometimes by not following the law doesn't make a person unethical.

 

you guys are gonna tear me apart but i would keep them and keep my mouth shut if he didnt pick them somebody else wouldve and i know if most of you found a dead bull you would cut the horns off. 
[/quote]  When I was a kid I found a nice 5 pt bull skull one time in the Margaret by the Green River on an old spur.  Took the thing and tossed it in the bed of the truck happy as can be, had it for about 10 minutes and pulled on to a mainline, no sooner had I pulled out when old man Foster (think that's how you spell his name) came flying by, and hit the skids.  I'm still driving with a big smile on my face when I see the Gamie flying up in the rearview.  He seen the antler tips and pulled me over, he said he first thought I had just got done poaching a bull tell he seen it was a deadhead.  He took the head, and told me of the law that at the time I was clueless about, gave me a warning.  He said if in anyway had I tried to conceal it that he would have thrown the book at me.  That is my 10 minutes of glory owning a deadhead, I at least got pics of him holding it up somewhere.

[jeepster]

this state makes me sick at times...

im trying to think, i mean, if i found them and they were already cut, they obviously arent sheds, and there wasnt a body near by or anything, and they werent attatched to anything.... id take em

but, the question is how long have they been there?

ask yourself, where were they found, and would a gamie really make the effort to go out that far? what are they going to do with them- put it in an evidence room, send it to a lab? would they really go out of thier way? who knows... the deed has already been done, if it was a poached animal, then taking them denys the poacher the pleasure of having a trophy, and it sure beats leaving them there for rodents to chew on....

maybe i am wrong.... i dont know, i dont know every rule out there... i only started hunting a few years ago... but seems to me, if you just found em there, i dont see how taking them is wrong, granted if you got pulled over, they might think you were the guy who poached the animal.... who knows, but taking them, to me, doesnt seem like a big deal

[Co]

Call it in!   or its on YOU.

[JODakota]

Call it in man, this stuff always has a way of coming back and biting you in the ass.