by mathspete » Tue Aug 06, 2019 9:38 pm
On one of my permissions in the wilds of Lincolnshire I have a healthy stock of roe deer. I have been enjoying watching a nice big buck over the last month, I have seen him every time I go over there bunny bashing, as he comes out of a neighbours wood and through the fence onto one of my grass fields about 5 to 600 yards away. I wanted to leave him until after the rut was over and possibly take him about October time. I was there again this weekend and set up in a freshly mown field hiding in a fallen tree to get at the bunnies. At the usual time I saw the buck emerge ( now only about 150 yards away) through the binocs I could see that he had a metre length of thick orange nylon rope tangled around his antlers and hanging down his side almost to floor level. I now had about 2 seconds to make a decision I grabbed the 270 and set up . Could I really let him wander about with that hanging from his head, all it would take would be to snag the rope in a fence or bush and that would be curtains for him, in a slow lingering starvation death. I made my decision, and the buck is now safely stashed away in my freezer. Everything was legal, (permission, calibre and season ) but my question is was there anything else I could have done. I looked on the situation as having a duty of care to that animal and strange as it may seem to non shooting people the only way I could see to prevent him from a slow lingering death was to give him a very quick pain free one. Comments welcome on what you would have done.
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