Unjustified killing


swampwright

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Today i found out that a seven year old deer that i knew very well had been shot, for no reason. Well seven years ago when i was still in school and living at my parents house my dad and I started to see a doe in the back yard every night. We named her our pet because of the way she would come and layout in the yard like our old lab. My parents back yard meets up to their timber. Well one day we saw the doe but it seemed to be walking with alot of trouble. After getting the spoting scope out we saw that she had lost half of her back left leg. We debaited weather to put her down and decided to let nature play its role. Day after day we saw her only to be getting stronger and by spring she was even walking on it, she even had a single yearling that year. She had a little trouble keeping up but she could still keep a good run. The year after and every year following shes had twins even this past spring. Well I got a call today from my Dad saying that one of the local police officers had seen her in a horse pasture next to my Dads place and said it was suffering do to the way it walked and shot it..... He did it last night at 11:00 or so and he even said "yea my wife even said to shoot it" which she isn't to be riding along as it is. Im very upset by this and not sure what to do. I talked to the chief and he said "man those night guys... what are they thinking" and thats it. Oh and by the way a local store got broken into last night maybe he should have been patroling instead of shooting deer in a horse pasture. Im very upset and not sure how far I should go with this just asking what the rest of you guys would do in my place. Thank You Cody B.

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Not much you can do. Folks see things in different ways. I too have seen does with little or no use of one of their legs and they do seem to adjust and get along fine as long as a yote don't chase 'em. I have shot 3 deer myself with injured legs and the one doe we always see with 3 legs working, we call her gimpy and she has put out fawns the last 3 years. So they can survive on 3 legs. I guess the others who called the police did not know the history you had with that deer and they thought they were doing the right thing.

I would have let natural selection do its job.

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I hope yours is an emotional response to one of those tough situations in life that we all run up against from time to time.

For all we know with what little amount of information any of us have is that this officer may have even been doing what he thought was the right thing and ending the perceived suffering of an animal. If you were in his shoes and that was the case you would not only be justified in your actions(IMHO) and not deserve to be slammed for doing what is right.

This could be one of those "Dont judge a book by it's cover" situations that are painful at least for some but in the heart of the matter the intention was honorable.

I tend to give the Police Officer the benefit of the doubt and what I've said is obviously my opinion. I just dont believe we know enough to accuse anyone of wrong doing here.

Edited by GWSmith
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Not much you can do, cops are going to back up each other. He should have called the local Wildlife Division. Sounds to me as if he was borded and doin' a little bit of legal spotlighting.

Sounds to me that your doing a little "Assuming without the Facts" just like everyone else.

I'm fed up with this "SLAM THE COP" attitude when you guys have nothing even close to the facts to go on.

Whatever happened to Innocent until Proven Guilty???????

You dont even know if there was a crime committed!

And this is the way you treat people who are sworn to protect you???

You'll slam people for treating what you do without fair process or judgement with all the facts but it's OK for you to do the same to people in a situation you dont even have all the facts about???

Treat people like you want treated or shut up.

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Sounds to me that your doing a little "Assuming without the Facts" just like everyone else.

I'm fed up with this "SLAM THE COP" attitude when you guys have nothing even close to the facts to go on.

Whatever happened to Innocent until Proven Guilty???????

You dont even know if there was a crime committed!

And this is the way you treat people who are sworn to protect you???

You'll slam people for treating what you do without fair process or judgement with all the facts but it's OK for you to do the same to people in a situation you dont even have all the facts about???

Treat people like you want treated or shut up.

Kinda gotta agree with this.....

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Ok...Slam the cop no, well i know him well he is a new officer. Im not trying to put police officers down in anyway my dad has been a police officer since 1984 and I have been since 05 in no way am I slamming. Just dont feel he was doing his job at 11:00 at night with his wife, and yes the meat went to waste laying in the pasture.

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I agree with you alot of people dont like you until they need you. I have respect for him just dont understand why and upset. Dont worry he has caught alot of jokes around the office for shooting his shotgun in a horse pasture at a three legged deer. I do believe he did it out of best intentions just wish there was structure.

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I thought only the dnr officers could make disitions like that

You are wrong in this assumption.....

Not much you can do, cops are going to back up each other

I guess this quote was proven to be wrong by the original posters own statement...

Ok...Slam the cop no, well i know him well he is a new officer. Im not trying to put police officers down in anyway my dad has been a police officer since 1984 and I have been since 05 in no way am I slamming.
Edited by Swamphunter
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my dad has been a police officer since 1984 and I have been since 05 in no way am I slamming. Just dont feel he was doing his job at 11:00 at night with his wife

If in fact you are actually a sworn law enforcement officer (and I have my doubts), you should know the proper channels to go through to get this problem rectified. The mature thing to do would be to ask your co-worker personally what the purpose was in him dispatching the animal and determine if in fact a 7 year old deer with a missing leg may have taken a turn for the worse or not. Not come to a public forum and trash a fellow police officer who dispatched what was known to be, at the least he determined, an animal hopping around on three legs appearing to be injured.

I don't see how when left to a rookie police officers judgement, him destroying what appeared to be a severely injured deer could be construed into "he was spotlighting" and implied to be poaching.

For as far as his wife riding with him, if you have the guts enough to come to a public forum and imply one of your own is committing crimes and violating policies, put pen to paper, file the report and flip him in. He will get suspended or fired and you will feel better in the end over "your" 7 year old injured deer.

Edited by Swamphunter
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