The Fawn

[Cinjin]

So I had a strange evening.

Arriving home around 5pm I began to walk around my house picking up the occasional small tree limbs that had been blown free by heavy winds the night before...
when I saw a fawn lying in the cool bottom of my outdoor basement stairwell walk-up. I slowly approached, and although it moved its head and kicked a bit, it did not attempt to run away. I walked down the steps and saw what was the matter. It had a huge maggot infestation all over it's hind quarters and tail, which had been literally eaten away by the nasty little bastards.

I petted the animal's head and told the little guy I'd make it quick. I went and got my .22 rifle and returned back down the steps. The animal was suffering and didn't even have the energy to run from me. I knelt beside it and told it I was sorry his little life had come to this but that I was going to save him a lot of suffering. I gave him one last pet over his neck, I rose took aim and ended his life. He didn't seem afraid of me whatsoever.

I've killed animals before, but never a fawn, and I was suddenly saddened as I made ready to move his tiny little spotted body.
Although I shed no tears, I mourned this animal. My sister winced with a whine when I told her the story.

Why did I mourn this animal?
Would you feel sadness?
Why do so many of us feel sadness over the death of such a creature? Seriously, why?

[Jenny A]

Morality is largely based on empathy. We are more empathetic about one person we know, or one person who's story we know than100,000 people we don't know. You felt sorry because you took the time to empathize.

I sympathize. I once killed a bat with my heel. It had a broken wing and other lacerations and was crying in fear and pain. I stepped on it's head and finished it, but I felt sad. The problem is that I killed it because I felt sorry for it. Just like you felt sorry for the fawn.

For a while we raised rabbits to eat. We very carefully did not make pets of those destined for the table. But the breeding does were pets. We didn't eat them even we they died of natural causes. Friends raise geese. They name them things like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter for just that reason.

[vorlon13]

I've put down some gravely injured animals. It's not easy, but I can't stand to let them suffer.

Took a house cat to the vet a couple years ago. He was immensely old. And I had taken him twice before. The first time, was after a large personality and behavior shift and I feared he had a brain tumor. Turned out cat had gone blind and was having some attitude about it, vet said he would be fine in a few weeks and he would adjust. He did.

Second time, the cat was so crippled up with arthritis he couldn't move. When I put him on the exam table, he jumped off and ran away, spritely. (he could see light and dark, no details) Vet asked what was up and we discussed the cats routine, and it turns out we were fussing over the cat when he acted a little sore and stiff. The cat was playing us for sympathy, and really stepping up his crippled act.

He almost died for his charade.

Third time, the vet agreed, he thought the cat had a stroke or heart attack and was pretty far gone. 18 years old, oldest cat we ever had.

---

We had him cremated (first house cat we did that for) and put his ashes under the lilac bush.

Where he used to eat bunnies.

[ignoramus]

You killed Bambi?
OMFG!

I'm too weak, I could never do it, and hope I'm never in that situation.

[Little lunch]

At least you had a gun. I've had to put down a few animals with the heel of my shoe.
One was an echidna I squashed with my car.
Same with a possum and a bandicoot.
I felt sad that they were suffering but possums and bandicoots are pests.

A friend of mine had to kill his dog because it had been killing his and other neighbour's chickens.
So he purposely waited til the dog wasn't looking and shot it from a distance.
The dog didn't know what had happened and being scared, it ran straight for it's master for protection and died at his feet.
I found that extremely sad.

[Cinjin]

At least you had a gun. I've had to put down a few animals with the heel of my shoe.
One was an echidna I squashed with my car.
Same with a possum and a bandicoot.
I felt sad that they were suffering but possums and bandicoots are pests.

A friend of mine had to kill his dog because it had been killing his and other neighbour's chickens.
So he purposely waited til the dog wasn't looking and shot it from a distance.
The dog didn't know what had happened and being scared, it ran straight for it's master for protection and died at his feet.
I found that extremely sad.

Your friend deserved what he got. What the fuck kind of asshole ends an animal suffering by making it suffer excruciating right before it dies?!?

If you dont know how to shoot your goddamn gun you dont practice on your own damn dog!

Dumb fuck piece of shit.

[The Grand Nudger]

Would you feel sadness?
Why do so many of us feel sadness over the death of such a creature? Seriously, why?

I imagine that only you could describe why you mourned. It's an intensely private thing, isn't it?

I do remember the first animal I ever killed. It was some random songbird chick. An easy, mostly stationary target, a challenging distance away - with the thrill of actually hitting an animal hanging in the balance. I was probably 7 or 8. So I made my shot, but when the mother/father appeared flying around the nest and making the most noise I've ever heard a small bird make (my own sudden and unexpected guilt was the sound of the bird - I know they aren't as loud as I remember) - I couldn;t handle it. I shot that bird as well. It was a much more difficult shot.

I remember thinking -before- that if I hit the bird I would brag to Poppy (my grandfather - the giver of guns..lol) about the shot. -After- I decided not to tell anyone. I've only recently started telling this story at all, to anyone. My grandmother (still alive and bigger than I am) would slap me in my face today - if I told it to her. She's the reason that all the songbirds were even there. All the baths and food, etc.

While I couldn't tell you for sure why I felt it, I can tell you that I did (and I could make a million guesses as to where it came from). I didn't really get into hunting (or fishing) again till my late teens. The episode with the bird had left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm over that now, of course, I'll shoot at anything my so tells me too - or that moves funny - or irritates me - or catches the light the wrong way.........over the deterrent, that is. I still feel anguish when I hunt, I'm told by my fellow hunters that it's a very common experience.

[Minimalist]

Life isn't fair, Cinj.

But you did what you had to do.

[Little lunch]

At least you had a gun. I've had to put down a few animals with the heel of my shoe.
One was an echidna I squashed with my car.
Same with a possum and a bandicoot.
I felt sad that they were suffering but possums and bandicoots are pests.

A friend of mine had to kill his dog because it had been killing his and other neighbour's chickens.
So he purposely waited til the dog wasn't looking and shot it from a distance.
The dog didn't know what had happened and being scared, it ran straight for it's master for protection and died at his feet.
I found that extremely sad.

Your friend deserved what he got. What the fuck kind of asshole ends an animal suffering by making it suffer excruciating right before it dies?!?

If you dont know how to shoot your goddamn gun you dont practice on your own damn dog!

Dumb fuck piece of shit.

Hey, I agree, that's why I found it so sad.
That guy, like a lot of fuckheads around the place, had a gun just to increase his dick size.
He only ever needed it to kill his dog and a few years later, himself.
Apparently he had depression and had been trying different drugs to get better and was too late to find the right ones.
He told his wife to take the kids outside, blew part of his head off and then still didn't die til he got to hospital. I was going out with the wife's sister. It was a fucked up state of affairs.

As for knowing how to shoot a gun.
Every farmer owns a gun and half them don't know how to use one or need one.
I hate them and until there is a zombie apocalypse I will never own one.

[Dystopia]

Well I wouldn't feel guilty or sad as long as I was doing it for a legitimate reason. Just like I kill flies that bother me, I wouldn't mind killing a dog or a cat for suffering.