What is one to do... (injured animals)

Hoodies post about her bad experience with the cat made me think. So what is one supposed to do when they come across injured animals and what is your responsibility to do right by them. If the law states you have to do something to help, saying this because some folks have been charged for issues in these cases.

For instance if you are driving and find an unfortunate animal that's been hit by a car and badly injured on the highway what is expected? Most will say call animal control or the cops...someone with a gun... but if you don't have a cell phone it's not possible. What are you expected to do if it's wildlife?...to put them out of their misery fast would be killing without a hunting tag (called poaching) and has huge fines. A domestic animal in this same scenario when the vets are closed like in my area evenings and weekends what do you do? If the vet should be open...who has to pay to have this critter destroyed?

I once witnessed a cat obviously severely injured and a woman who was very stressed by this...I don't know if she hit the cat or if she chanced upon it. She was hysterical...I stopped and tried to calm her but this cats guts were all over the road and it was still alive. My first thought was to run over it and end things but no way did I want to get in shit about animal abuse. The vet office was about 4 blocks away but the cat was such a mess I wasn't about to try and move it to take it to the vet with the entrails like that. The vets weren't interested in running down to the cat, it had to be brought in. When I went back after having found a cardboard box for it, it had finally expired on it's own. That poor woman had sat there helpless and listened to those horrible noises the cat made while I was away, I swear she was in shock and was sitting on the curb puking. I drove past her, I didn't know what to do, the cat was dead...I know that sounds bad but that's what I did, went home and got a shovel, returned and cleaned up the mess, woman was gone and the corpse was flat as it had been run over a few more times since I saw it last.

That's just one example and I'm sure there are hundreds of scenarios where nobody is sure what to do. Relying on the "proper authorities" is often a bad situation because the police for one are no judges of animal abuse cases (anyone recall the trucker last year who broke down on the side of the highway with a load of horses and got charged with animal abuse...was on Kijiji). The SPCA has no clue about livestock for the most part also. Any input on what's appropriate and what's not? :?:

If the animal is mortally wounded, I'd rather put it out of it's misery regardless of the ramifications. It's such a slippery slope legally.

I'm not sure if I could do it but I agree the animal should be put out of misery quickly.

jamn53 wrote:

I'm not sure if I could do it but I agree the animal should be put out of misery quickly.

+1

Pretty sure I posted way back about a kitten that was dropped off at my work (farm market/garden center) that was near death....body drawn up and rigid, back arched, skin and bones and screaming. The guy working with me grew up on a farm and still raised some animals. Neither of us could leave work (rules), vet office closed and we knew the kitten was beyond help. Only after he checked with me to make sure I agreed, he went to his car to get his hatchet, took the poor wee thing out back and using the blunt end to the back of it's head, put it out of it's misery. I questioned myself as to whether we had done the right thing and came to the conclusion that it was the only merciful thing that could have been done, considering the kitten's condition and the suffering it would have endured even if one of us could have made the half hour drive to the city to a 24 hr vet.

Several years ago a story made the news about a raccoon being hit somewhere near or in the city. The poor thing was literally torn apart. Another driver stopped, saw the animal in horrible distress and took a shovel from his trunk, killed it immediately. Unfortunately there were children nearby waiting for their bus who witnessed this. This is the main reason it caused an uproar. It soon subsided when the majority of people responding made clear the point that it was the most humane and merciful thing that could have been done AND that more important than the children being 'traumatized' by the sight is the fact that it should have been explained to them by their parents that as horrible as it might have appeared, leaving the poor animal to suffer in agony would have been much worse and most inhumane.

As for a pet that was injured but not dying, I would have to get it to a vet if at all possible....even though I'm not in a position to afford paying for someone else's animals care. That is something that really bothers me, the possibility that if the circumstance arose, I might have to weigh life against cost. What would you tell the animal's owner if they were later found??

If there is any way possible put the poor things out of their misery,I hate worse than anything to watch an animal suffer when one knows it is on its last legs,

Legally I suppose one could get their butts in trouble for doing it and being seen,as to many people see it as animal abuse,but on the other hand would do nothing to help

When i was a young girl we were comming home from brownies with a friends dad.
he saw a raccon who had been hit but still alive. He pulled over and got something out of the trunk went over and had to hit it a few times then got back in the car and drove off. He seemed shaken but even as kids we knew he did the right thing.
As a child I would take anything injured i found, birds, squirrels & mice to the vets and drop them off so they could save them. My mom never came in and they never refused a little girl.
When I worked at a vets mant mornings I would arrive with a pail or box with somethign injured waiting at the door for us to help.

Something weird a co-worker was telling me about that happened to a friend of her's a few years ago. Her friend hit a beaver with his car, it was dark out and the beaver was sitting in the middle of the lane. He didn't know what he hit, so he pulled his car over to the side to go walk over to see what it was that he hit. Apparently the beaver wasn't that injured because as he approached it to see what it was, it jumped up and attacked him. Bit him in the leg, he was bleeding a lot from his leg. If you hit an animal by accident and are getting out to investigate, be careful. Especially if it's wildlife.

Do the right thing. Put the animal out of their misery.

Had to do it a couple of times. Wouldn't think twice of doing it again. It is really really really hard to do. But for the good of the animal must be done.

Not going into details. But when we hit the deer this year. No chance of survival. hubby put the thing out of his misery. On my old farm back in manitoba. Buck was hit by a car. I first came across the doe. She was dead in my ditch. When I contined to walk the ditch ( checking fence) buck was there. Bone went right through his leg. Went home. Called Fish and Wildlife. They told me 2 days till they got someone out. I said I couldn't watch him die by coyotes. I asked if I can put him out of his misery. They said yes. Told them using a high power. No problem