Just NOT a Good Day Hunting Rabbit...

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Shane Tuttle

Staff
I live outside of a small town in an association. No covenants. We have roughly an acre of unfenced yards between each other. Neighbors are far enough away that you can give a friendly wave in the morning but they can't look out their window into your kitchen window and see how much Tabasco you put on your eggs in the mornings.

Most everybody is sick and tired of the rabbit population around here. All of my neighbors have given me permission to enter their property any time to rid of them. I told them I sometimes use a Stevens 20ga. shotgun or a Springfield 87A .22lr to do the deed. Since they let me roam the area, I thought best to buy a GAMO air rifle when on their property especially in the darker hours. For the past year, I've dispatched quite a few with no problems...until Monday...

I just started to mow my lawn. I happened to turn the corner around my shop and saw one, BIG rabbit. He froze in his tracks as I did. Went inside to grab the rifle. Headed back and he was still there. At 50 feet, I took aim and dropped him right there. Perfect side shot in the head. No suffering. All is well. Humane kill. One less expensive neighbors' garden ruined. Continued my mowing duties. Then, I saw what I wished I never had seen....

I turned the other corner of my shop from the back side to the side opposite side where I downed that big boy. It wasn't a big boy. Fur was covering an area between my plants. You guessed it. I left a nest of EIGHT babies not more than a day or two old motherless. I'm all for hunting adult or adolescent varmints. But helpless babies is NOT my cup of tea. All the animal shelters were closed. I wasn't going to drop a hefty sum for an on-call fee for my vet. EVERYBODY hates rabbits in my neighborhood for said reasons. So, I'm stuck with dealing with the darkest side of volunteering for varmint control.

Call me a sissy. Call me a pansy. It won't bother me and I can understand being they are varmints after all. But I was and I am still sickened that I had to take care of the issue at hand. I think my GAMO is going to get a rest for a while until I gather myself. I think this is one difficult experience I've had to deal with in quite some time. I'm not sure what I'm wanting out of this post other than I had to get it "on paper" and off my chest. My wife wants to know why I'm clamming up and I won't tell her. She's an even bigger animal lover than I am and there's VERY few things I don't talk to her about. This just happens to be one of them.
 
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Dingoboyx

New member
I would have....

called you a sissy or a pansy if....




You [hadn't] done either of the things you did....

You did EXACTLY the right thing..... you got rid of a great big bunny factory & you didn't leave the babies to starve slowly to death....

When you shot the big'n, you weren't to know she had brats.... you did the right thing offing her.... Those babies in a month or 2 would have been producing litters of their own, so you have really done well.....

So dont be a sissy or a pansy, keep your rifle handy and shoot ANY rabbit or other varmint you see, immediately.

Many rabbits you have shot in the past have prolly left litters somewhere.... get over it... if a fox or a 'yote had got her, the babies would have suffered the same fate.... thats life.....

Now put away your 'human' feelings, and keep shootin' rabbits, your neighbours and local environment needs blokes like you to cull the population of varmints ;)

Stop beating on yourself and keep up the good work :cool:
 
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hogdogs

Staff In Memoriam
Well If it helps, I would be tossin the youngsters in the snake cage til' Eva were full.
when in the task of varmint control, there are some things that occur that make me question my duties. whether it be the roaches, ants and rats from my "pro" pest control days or later, the pigs, dillars and possums... I know my job is to reduce the "numbers" so a mother with young back in a den or nest can be considered a great take. If the bunnies are furry and mobile they will survive most likely... if not... oh well...
Brent
 
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Shane Tuttle

Staff
Well If it helps, I would be tossin the youngsters in the snake cage til' Eva were full.
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You make use of the animal for a purpose. I do see your point, though. I guess they may have been innocent and helpless at the time but would be the future in destroying gardens. Kinda feel like I lost a little bit of my humanity in a way....or actually grew a few more hairs on my chest...

In my head it was the logical thing to do. In my heart it was sickening, cruel, and a bit daunting.
 
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Foxrr

New member
After expressing sympathy for a badly wounded goat, I once had another shooter say to me, 'If you can't hack it maybe you shouldn't be here.'
I told him, 'When you lose your humanity you've got serious problems.'
Any hunting is going to have such incidents as woundings and having to deal with helpless babes left motherless. If it's vermin, then you're doing the right thing by despatching the babies as quickly and humanely as possible. They're as much of a problem potentially as the big ones and have to go.
Any wounding or sucker-disposal makes me feel a bit crook. Occasionally I even query myself why I like to hunt, but I know it's part of my instinctive make-up. I simply can handle it, and like the challenge, and many can't. Sometimes they're the people who want the faceless few like me and fellas like the other guys on this forum to do their 'dirty work' for them. Often they don't even want to admit the dirty work needs to be done.
Tuttle, I guess if you're going to keep hunting and especially culling - that most necessary but distasteful form of hunting - you're going to have to come to terms with your humanity. Just be satisfied and content you haven't lost it.
I should add..There isn't an animal on the face of this earth that deserves to be killed cruelly, or a babe you've found that should be left for the predators to chew. They are all doing what nature intended. It's all too often human intervention that turns them into overpopulated pests.
 
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Brian Pfleuger

Moderator Emeritus
Call me a sissy. Call me a pansy. It won't bother me and I can understand being they are varmints after all. But I was and I am still sickened that I had to take care of the issue at hand. I think my GAMO is going to get a rest for a while until I gather myself. I think this is one difficult experience I've had to deal with in quite some time.
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What I'd call you is a real man. I had to do a similar thing with :barf::(a kitten:(:barf:. I was haunted by the sight for years, but... you do what you have to do.
 
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JagFarlane

New member
After expressing sympathy for a badly wounded goat, I once had another shooter say to me, 'If you can't hack it maybe you shouldn't be here.'
I told him, 'When you lose your humanity you've got serious problems.'
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Reminds me of a hunting article I read years ago and always remember. The author was going on about buck fever and simply put it as this "The day that any hunter no longer experiences buck fever is the day they should stop hunting. The reason being, is its no longer hunting, but simply killing."

I can understand why you feel sickened, and no worries, I don't see you as a coward.
 
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djohn

New member
I can understand you feeling bad thats just means you have humanity its a good thing. You did what you needed to do to control the problem at hand and in the unlikely hood the survival of the young would just continue the cycle of garden destroyers.
 
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Shane Tuttle

Staff
Your comments are appreciated, fellas.

It isn't the end of the world of course. This just bothered me quite a bit since I didn't talk to anyone about it...namely the one person that I've always confided in.
 
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Wildalaska

Moderator
This just bothered me quite a bit since I didn't talk to anyone about it...namely the one person that I've always confided in.
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I forgive you and understand...you'll tell me the next time :)

WildimallearsAlaska TM
 
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Buzzcook

New member
It's the surprise that sets us on tilt.
If you had known before hand that you'd have to kill a covey of babies bunnies as well, you probably would have been ok with it. Having that responsibility plopped in your lap without any recourse makes it pretty icky.
 
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hogdogs

Staff In Memoriam
'When you lose your humanity you've got serious problems.'
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Here in is an issue. Humanity, In my mind, is how I approach fellow humans. Humanity is of no concern when dealing with animals. I consider all animals no more than just inventory.
Brent
 
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