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Thread: injured deer

  1. #1
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    Question injured deer

    If you see an injured deer on the side of the road, that is definitely hurt and in pain can you legally shoot it and take it out of its misery? Do you need to call someone afterwards?
    Thank you in advance for your input.

  2. #2
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    Default Re: injured deer

    Nope.
    Call the PGC regional office if you come across one.

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    Default Re: injured deer

    Quote Originally Posted by Mocha Java View Post
    Nope.
    Call the PGC regional office if you come across one.
    Shooting a deer even almost dead and gravely injured is considered hunting... Call the authorities, let them deal with it.
    Skeet is a sport where you are better to hit half of each bird then completely blast one and miss the other completely.

    The choice is yours, place your faith in the court system and 12 of your peers, or carried away by 6 friends.

    Nemo Me Impune Lacessit. 'Nobody provokes me with impunity'
    ΜOΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

    In this world there's two kinds of people, my friend. Those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig.
    Clint Eastwood
    The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

  4. #4
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    Default Re: injured deer

    Legally - no.

    Morally - that's for you to decide.

    If you go with the second option, is anyone else around to report it?

    By the way, if you do it out of season and/or without a deer tag, it's not hunting - it's poaching.

  5. #5
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    Lightbulb Re: injured deer

    I had this happen to me one night last year.

    I looked around for a large rock and that was that.


  6. #6
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    Default Re: injured deer

    Whether or not you'd get in trouble for doing what I'd consider the humane thing to do would depend a lot on the circumstances and the view of the game commission.

    I'd suggest reporting it either way and certainly avoid attempting to argue that you not only put it out of its misery but didn't want it to go to waste and so took it home and processed it.
    "When the winds of change blow hard enough, the most trivial of things can become deadly projectiles." - Unknown.

  7. #7
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    Default Re: injured deer

    As others have said, no. In no shape or manner may you legally dispatch injured game from accidents.

    Here's a start of what you could get popped with: Road hunting, poaching, hunting out of season, unlawful discharge of a firearm(municipal laws apply), shooting across roads, etc..

    Not many folks, or even some LEO's, will question the dispatching if you so choose to do something. PA Game Commission officers will write you up in a heartbeat if they catch wind of it if you do it without their consent.

    However, I've been known to accidentally hit an injured deer a couple times in the head and neck with my truck tire. Was the damnedest thing too... It jumped out in front of me and laid down, then got back up and ran from behind me to in front of me and did it again.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: injured deer

    Both times I have come across an injured dear I or someone else had called the police. They came out and dispatched the dear within minutes. Let them do it.

  9. #9
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    Default Re: injured deer

    when i worked a private community, which was ACT 235, we would call both PSP and Game Commission, and ask if they had anyone in the area to put the deer down. most of their time their response was no, so they told us to do it, in a safe manner.

    always call them first, and ask if they have anyone that is available in the area, more then likely they wont. they may give you permission to put it down then.
    Guns don't kill people, it's mostly the bullets.

  10. #10
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    Default Re: injured deer

    Quote Originally Posted by DiveGerry View Post
    If you see an injured deer on the side of the road, that is definitely hurt and in pain can you legally shoot it and take it out of its misery? Do you need to call someone afterwards?
    Thank you in advance for your input.
    Legally, no you can't put it down. Only a member of the PGC or a LEO can legally dispatch the animal.

    Morally.....it would be very hard to let a suffering animal just lay by the side of the road.

    You can call, and they may authorize you to put the animal down if there is no one in the area.

    Before I became a LEO, I hit a deer with my vehicle. Actually the deer hit me as it ran into the side of my vehicle. It was hurt pretty bad and I wanted to put the animal down, but I knew of the law. This happened in Bear Creek. So I drove all the way back to Wilkes-Barre (this was also before cell phones!!) and called the PGC.

    I told the dispatcher what happened and you know what I was told? "Did you put the animal down? No, I wasn't sure I could. Well you should not have let the animal suffer."

    Whiskey, tango, foxtrot......over!

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