This afternoon I was asked to respond to the interstate just outside of town where a bear had been hit by a car and was still alive. I arrived there along with a county unit and found the bear laying in a concrete ditch in the median. It was still alive with a massive injury to it's front shoulder. Her leg was nearly torn off and and she was just laying there looking around, not trying to get up but just slowly moving, rolling over and breathing extremely labored. She was obviously in bad trouble and I knew what had to be done.
Where she was at in the ditch I was concerned about a bullet ricocheting with passing traffic so I asked a deputy to go back up the interstate and shut the road down a few minutes. When all was clear I moved into a position to put her down. As I readied for the shot she looked up at me with a look I can't describe. It was like she was thanking me and telling me it was alright. After I put her out of her misery, the other deputy there with me commented on the way she looked at me. So sad, she broke my heart. Sometimes I hate what I do.

Some jobs stink but you do them anyway,because someone has to. I guess it just comes with the territory and the job, you don't like it but you have to do it anyway.You know it was the right thing to do.

But you did the right thing.....that isn't always easy

We do what we have to no matter how bad it hurts. Never an easy thing to do.

I hear ya and I feel for you too. I saw a doe this morning running across a 4 lane after being hit. She made it into the middle of the other lanes from where she was hit and fell and just rolled onto her back and lay there. I started to turn around and drag her out of the road and finish her with my pistol but I know if the wrong person saw it and got my license I would be in big trouble so I just kept going but I felt so sorry for her knowing she would probably suffer for a good while longer.

Chief you did the right thing. I have had to do the same thing on duty with a coyote and and a dog, and off duty with a few animals. Never fun but it is sometime necessary. I had to finish a doe with a fence post one day when I was a teen because I didn't have a gun on me. That was not a fun day.

Be safe out there Sir.


Scott

chiefbg

Animals are a lot smarter than we give them credit for. I had to dispatch a number of moose in Alaska that had been hit by cars. I found that if you just talked to them for a little while they would calm right down, I never felt good about shooting them after that.

I have a lot of dealings with bears and if I can get them to stay away from my horses we get on just fine. I managed to reach an understanding with one of my bears this year by shooting him in the butt with my slingshot.

You did a good thing..

Good character is marked by doing the right thing, even when it's not easy, or what you want to do at the moment. You did the right thing.

Chief, I have alot of respect for you sir. I think it's a very honorabl to have respect for an animal like this. Too many people (including some hunters)out there now aday's could care less about the animals feelings.

I also have had to do the merciful kill on wild animals; deer and coyotes and foxes and even elk. And sometimes under the supervision of Game Wardens. It is a mind trip and sooo hard... Hurts me real baaaad; even though under different circumstances:

I am the Hunter and the Prey is my "trophy."

And in those times I am even PROUD of it. But maybe the difference is that I hunted for the animal with a license and on legal and even terms. And took it fair and square on it's own grounds.

...not laying on the highway with a broken leg or shoulder or spine...

Search hard and suck it up though, Gregg. Just a bit over a week ago I had to do the same basic thing but with a horse that belonged to my sweet wife Karen. This horse was not only sweet and loving but always amazingly vigilant and actually responsible for sighting (and me successfully shooting) elk many times before I did on a hunt...

Heck, this mare not only packed out elk for me but even put up with me one time when I tied a stinkin' coyote on the saddle horn and she packed it out for me also; probably thinking that I was crazy but she did it anyway for me because she trusted me.

Now that, folks, was Really Hard when I had to "put her down..." but thankfully the situation was under Professional Medical Care... but that didn't really make it any easier.

I cried. Hard and long.

What you did was the honorable thing. Her suffering was ended and that makes it ok. It is not being, it is being human

Gregg Richter

I had to put down a mare, she had fallen and broken her back, the hardest thing I ever had to do.

linebaugh

Not to sound like a animal activist or "tree huger", but you are right, we share the planet with the animals and they deserve our respect. The opening scene in the Last of the Mohicans sums that up nicely.

Chief,don't confuse compassion with weakness...You did a good thing.

I had a similiar incidnet a couple weeks ago. I was driving back to the city I work in coming back from court when I noticed a deer laying about 15 yards off of a major highway. I turned around and went back and sure enough it had been hit by a car and was still alive. Since I was several miles outside my jurisdiction I had to get permission from the state police to put it down. It started to drag itself away and then just stopped and looked at me like enough is enough.

You did good! Yes it hurts nad your not getting soft. We care about the animals we pursue. Makes us human! Know that you helped her end her misery.

chiefbg

We all seem to be oriented around the "group hug" syndrome,just remember no matter how pitiful that bear may have looked, if you had of gotten close enough for her to get a hold of you, you would not have started this thread...