Well back in 1985 I went through this.
I was hunting with my uncle and my dad. We'd already gotten a buck and a doe but had a doe tag left so we could get one more, either sex.
I ended up getting a doe had her dressed out and was dragging her back to the house. While trying to pull her under this fence while I went over it a fawn had jumped into this creek. I looked at it and it's side was entirely covered in blood. It's Front leg was completely gone from the elbow down and one of it's back legs was being drug behind it. It was in such bad shape It couldn't even get out of the creek, which only had 3 inches of water with a foot high bank.
I made my decision real quick. Fact I never even thought of it. I picked my gun up off the ground and made a left handed shot (I'm right handed) while stradling the fence. It wasn't an impressive shot as I was aiming for the chest and ended up hitting it in the neck. It dropped on the spot though.
After making sure it was settled I continued dragging my deer back to the house. Told dad what had happened and he told me to gut it out and bring it back to the house while he went to find a tag. He also told me not to tag either one as I would prolly have to take the fawn and give away the doe. (No site tag regulations back then)
He came back a couple hrs later and couldn't even find anyone with a doe tag. Then we both went to find some one with a doe permit. About 1:30 that afternoon I came back to the house and there sat 2 wardens with 4 other DNR employees and they drove a total of 4 DNR trucks down there also. I thought what the heck is going on now.
They started asking me ? and interrogating me for about 15 minutes when dad finally came down the hill. Boy was I glad as I didn't like being interrogated at the age of 16. I imagine dad figured we just best off tell them what had happened so he told me to take the wardens to the spot where it all happened.
I showed them the gut piles, where I was standing when I made the shot and anything else they asked. They took the fawn and the doe but no citation was issued at that time. 3 days later they came to school to ask me some more ?'s. I was called to the principals office where the wardens were. The principal being a sportsman kinda wanted to hang around to get the dirt on things. The wardens asked if they could talk to me in private, so I pointed to the door so the principal would know his way.
(kinda felt cool being the only one to ever kick the principal out of his own office
) All they wanted to do was clear up a few things. Dad had claimed that I shot the buck and I said that he did. Well we both shot at it but he actually hit it and said I did just to make me feel good about it.(To this day he says I hit that buck but I know better. I would do the same thing with my boy) My uncle was the one who tagged the buck as he didn't have a doe permit.
After clearing things up about 2 weeks later dad recieved a citation for not registering 2 deer. We had intentions of fighting it in court as he didn't shoot either one of them and what I'd done we didn't feel was wrong. Maybe illegal but not wrong. Sometimes the laws are wrong too. Well dad forgot about the court date and was assumed guilty. He got a fine of $118 dollar for the 2 deer and lost deer hunting privledges for 1 yr. It kinda left a sour taste in his mouth as he hasn't been deer hunting since.
What I found out later was who ever turned us in had said we had lots more deer than what we did. That explains all the pickups and men. I learned of this later that yr when I went to sell my fur. Having a pickup load it was worth shopping around to find the highest prices. One furbuyer heard I'd got caught with 13 deer hagning in the woods another heard 15 and another heard 16. That explains that.
Now why did they charge dad instead of me as I was the one who actually did it. I found out a couple yrs later when the same CO check me on the trapline to see if my traps were tagged. He said "They were just doing their job and had to give someone a ticket, knowing dad could have got out of it by simply saying that he didn't do I did it. Which meant they would have had to take me to juvenile court and they don't like taking minors to court so the charges would have just been dropped." Warden also said "dad should have just remembered court and it would have been dropped."
What would I do now? Same thing only after I shot it I'd let it lay until I found someone with a tag. Then we would go get the deer. If something happened in the mean time I would make them prove to a jury that I was the one who killed it. Just because I know where it's at doesn't mean I did it or know who did. It's as simple as it was that day, I wouldn't even give it a thought.
Looking back in all probability that deer prolly would have died in that creek wheather I shot it or not. The ? is how long would it have taken as my shot was the fifth time it had been hit but the only leathal one.
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Topic: Ethical issue-What would you do?? (Read 8236 times)
