Deer in distress...?

[Arch]

Don't beat yourself up over it, and above all don't be seduced by the over sentimental pap pedalled by the likes of the BBC.

I don't know which BBC wildlife shows you've been watching, but I don't think they are generally overly sentimental. Certainly nothing with Attenborough involved.

Obviously, a show about gazelle, say, would be from an angle sympathetic with gazelle (oooh, will it get away? yay! it did!), but a show about lions would have us cheering for the lion (go on, catch it. go on, yay, you did!) - that's just human nature.

 

[Gerry Attrick]

I don't know which BBC wildlife shows you've been watching, but I don't think they are generally overly sentimental. Certainly nothing with Attenborough involved.

Obviously, a show about gazelle, say, would be from an angle sympathetic with gazelle (oooh, will it get away? yay! it did!), but a show about lions would have us cheering for the lion (go on, catch it. go on, yay, you did!) - that's just human nature.

I was thinking more of the RSPCA type reality shows so beloved of the Beeb which show seriously injured and distressed wild animals being kept in close confinement whilst worried looking officials, vets and tele-ogglers oooh and aaah over its fate when it is clear that the most humane action would be to put it out of its misery.

 

[papercorn2000]

A while ago, I was driving through the Lake District at night and came across what I thought was a body in the road. Disregarding everything that I have ever learned from horror movies, I went to investigate. It so happened that it was a fair sized Roe buck that had evidently been skelped by a car. It was still alive and, presumably, in some distress.
I decided that the best course of action would be to kill it.

Unusually, I didn't have anything with me which I could use to kill a large-ish herbivore. I desperation, I clonked it over the base of the skull with a tyre iron - to no avail (it was becoming a bit comedic by now).

The poor creature eventually expired of its own accord - bamboozled to death, I should guess, and I was left with the problem of how to get it off the road before an accident was caused.

I called the police and let them know what had happened (if I was at home, a call to a guy who is a butcher would have done the trick). As it happened, a local lad stopped, asked if I wanted the carcasse and, when I said no, it vanished into his van - no doubt to be gralloched, jointed and stuck in his freezer. So, all's well that ends well.

 

[Arch]

I was thinking more of the RSPCA type reality shows so beloved of the Beeb which show seriously injured and distressed wild animals being kept in close confinement whilst worried looking officials, vets and tele-ogglers oooh and aaah over its fate when it is clear that the most humane action would be to put it out of its misery.

Oh, I suppose so....

 

[Coco]

Papercorn's story reminds me of when I worked for a large telecoms company.
One of my colleagues was doing some major roadside works that went on for a few weeks. Every day an old woman would walk past with her dog and they eventually got on first name terms.
One day the dog tried to chase a cat and managed to break free from its lead straight into the path of a car. As it lay there my chum told the woman that the best he could do, was to put it out of its misery. She agreed and he took it into the back of the van and hit it on the head with an iron bar. She took the lifeless body from him and sobbed all the way home.

A couple of days later she came round the corner with her dog sporting a bandage on its head. The vet said apart from a fractured skull there was nothing wrong with the dog!

So if you are going for the mercy kill, make sure you do it right