Animal shootings

joeendris

joeendris

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OK, today I noticed a snapping turtle on the side of the road. Something wasn't right, as I drove by. I turned around and went back. That's when I noticed that whole back half of the turtle was, essentially, blown out. Some jackass hit the thing and kept going, leaving the snapper in the middle of the road (because it was apparently not enough of an impact to notice?)[angry]

I put my car in the way...enough to keep folks from this turtle and called my local dept. There wasn't enough left of the turtle to save, sadly. Shell was split all the way from stem to stern, pcs were strewn 15-20 feet downwind of the "hit", jaw was smashed in several pcs (part of it was sticking out of its head), etc, you get the idea. And the damn thing was still trying to get to the river....

With Mass laws the way they are, confusing at best, would I have been arrested if I put a round in its head? I would be "discharging" a firearm right on the road. Sadly, this is the third time this year that I've come upon hit-n-run animals.

To be clear, I did take a snapshot of what was left before my locals shot it, so it's clear there wasn't anything anybody could've done.

As it stands, my locals put one in its head.
 
joeendris said:
OK, today I noticed a snapping turtle on the side of the road. Something wasn't right, as I drove by. I turned around and went back. That's when I noticed that whole back half of the turtle was, essentially, blown out. Some jackass hit the thing and kept going, leaving the snapper in the middle of the road (because it was apparently not enough of an impact to notice?)[angry]

I put my car in the way...enough to keep folks from this turtle and called my local dept. There wasn't enough left of the turtle to save, sadly. Shell was split all the way from stem to stern, pcs were strewn 15-20 feet downwind of the "hit", jaw was smashed in several pcs (part of it was sticking out of its head), etc, you get the idea. And the damn thing was still trying to get to the river....

With Mass laws the way they are, confusing at best, would I have been arrested if I put a round in its head? I would be "discharging" a firearm right on the road. Sadly, this is the third time this year that I've come upon hit-n-run animals.

To be clear, I did take a snapshot of what was left before my locals shot it, so it's clear there wasn't anything anybody could've done.

As it stands, my locals put one in its head.
Click to expand...


I would bet you would leave the last of your 2A rights at the scene if you ever did that.
 
joeendris said:
...With Mass laws the way they are, confusing at best, would I have been arrested if I put a round in its head? I would be "discharging" a firearm right on the road....
Click to expand...

Arrest would be a real possibility, as would LTC suspension/revocation.

MGL 131-58 prohibits the discharge of a firearm "...upon or across any state or hard surfaced highway, or within one hundred and fifty feet, of any such highway...".

There is no exemption for dispatching injured animals.
 
Seems like those turtles must be migrating or something, monday night going up rt 13 there were some folks "nudging" a large turtle across the road with a giant board to keep it from getting killed.

We gotta be careful though.... the feds might come in and decide we need turtle fences.

-Mike
 
I can't imagine getting called out to shoot an injured turtle. What's next? Squirrels, porkypines, and coons?

Seriously, if there's an injured animal in the road that is large enough to be a traffic hazard - deer, moose, cow, etc - it gets dispatched and hauled out of the way. Everything else, turtles included, just get mashed into the road surface and picked at by crows and seagulls.
 
drgrant said:
Seems like those turtles must be migrating or something, monday night going up rt 13 there were some folks "nudging" a large turtle across the road with a giant board to keep it from getting killed.

We gotta be careful though.... the feds might come in and decide we need turtle fences.

-Mike
Click to expand...

they are laying eggs right now....
 
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=2065591488347&set=a.1838416049103.2108756.1501574896&type=1&theater
drgrant said:
Seems like those turtles must be migrating or something, monday night going up rt 13 there were some folks "nudging" a large turtle across the road with a giant board to keep it from getting killed.
-Mike
Click to expand...

There's a big show of snapping turtles in "this" vicinity during mid-May to the end of July. It's an egg laying area (maybe protected) not 100yds from the local river. At night, there's a few folks who frequently drive thru, clearing snappers off the road to make sure they live from ignorant drivers.

WC145, wow...
I can't imagine getting called out to shoot an injured turtle. What's next? Squirrels, porkypines, and coons?

Seriously, if there's an injured animal in the road that is large enough to be a traffic hazard - deer, moose, cow, etc - it gets dispatched and hauled out of the way. Everything else, turtles included, just get mashed into the road surface and picked at by crows and seagulls.
Click to expand...

Apparently, you don't know what a snapping turtle looks like, or you wouldn't make a doofus statement like this. PLEASE shoot a snapping turtle shell and save us from your comments in the future! Class, a snapper has a shell 8" tall, 2' long, 1' wide. Think it's not a hazard? Hit one at 40mph and tell me what your rim looks like after.....Shoot the shell and tell me what your face looks like after (think kevlar vest).

The question wasn't about the turtle itself, but was about whether or not I would get arrested for finishing what some asshat driver caused?
 
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Whaaambulance?

Sent from the Hyundai of the droids, the Samsung Replenish, using Tapatalk.
 
I had a similar situation happen to me the other day. Was driving my wife's car with her in it, and we came upon a squirrel that was run over by a car. It wasn't quite dead yet and was still writhing around a little.. you know, as best it could with half it's body squished. I was going to just aim for the head to finish the job, but my wife freaked out about it. I thought it was because she didn't want the stink on the tires, but it turns out she didn't like the prospect of me running over a squirrel on purpose.
 
whatluck said:
If nobody were around, I'd finish it with a big rock.
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I can hear the theme music to Mortal Kombat in my head right now. You pull up to the turtle and shout, "Finish him!" After your body jerks around a bit as you get the combination right, you slam the rock on the turtle. You then follow it up with a proud stance and whisper under your breath, "Whatluck wins. Flawless victory. Fatality."
 
Sucky part.............main road. Couldn't pull "rock duty" with something protected. [sad] Though, in the past, I have pulled out a framing hammer twice (groundhog I did hit and broke its back, and a squirrel)

WC145 would prefer to ignore this and not waste her time, so please don't call her to help ...
flawless victory
Click to expand...
 
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taggart said:
I can hear the theme music to Mortal Kombat in my head right now. You pull up to the turtle and shout, "Finish him!" After your body jerks around a bit as you get the combination right, you slam the rock on the turtle. You then follow it up with a proud stance and whisper under your breath, "Whatluck wins. Flawless victory. Fatality."
Click to expand...

No, fatality/dragon punch during blanka rolls, etc is reserved for statist authoritarians on NES who get p3nwed in debates. [laugh]

-Mike
 
Interesting. I was walking the dog the other night (in between thunderstorms) and saw some sort of animal around the corner. Walked over to it and it was a snapper, about a 12-13" shell, trying to get around a fence. The owner of the house came saw me and came out and we tried to figure out what to do with it. He was going to pick it up from the rear when it lunged quickly, convincing him that that might not be a good idea. It wandered off in the middle of the night apprarently.

Tornadoes? Migrating snappers? Where are the "go-time" experts?
 
Here's a few ways to move snapping turtles off the road. If your brave get a grip, on the shell right behind the head and another hand above the tail. Neither the mouth or feet can reach you this way. Move him off in the direction he was going. #2 get a branch and tease his business end. HE WILL BITE IT AND HOLD ON. Then just drag him off in the direction he was going. (with this method use a branch big enough so that he wont cut through it, he wont bite a second time if he has a piece in his mouth) #3 any flat shovel works on the smaller ones. Scoop them up and move off the road. Tail grab is not recomended especialy on the big ones because the tail will break.
 
joeendris said:
WC145, wow...

Apparently, you don't know what a snapping turtle looks like, or you wouldn't make a doofus statement like this. PLEASE shoot a snapping turtle shell and save us from your comments in the future! Class, a snapper has a shell 8" tall, 2' long, 1' wide. Think it's not a hazard? Hit one at 40mph and tell me what your rim looks like after.....Shoot the shell and tell me what your face looks like after (think kevlar vest).

The question wasn't about the turtle itself, but was about whether or not I would get arrested for finishing what some asshat driver caused?
Click to expand...
Lighten up, Francis. It's a friggin' turtle. Plenty of them around here and they get hit all the time - no vehicles damaged by running one over, nobody gets called out to put them down, and I've yet to see a "good samaritan", like yourself, pull over to put one out of it's misery or drag it off the road. In fact, I'm amazed your local LE agency would shoot the thing, considering the risk of a ricochet shooting at the pavement.

Maybe the prevailing attitude is different up here than where you live, but half dead reptiles don't garner much concern in this area.

As far as your concern over shooting it on the roadway, I'm sure it would be frowned upon. You might not be arrested but your good deed might get you a nice fine. If you run into this sort of thing again maybe you should just wack it in the head with a crowbar. Just as effective, no concerns for laws broken. Of course you want to be careful that you don't get hit by a car while doing it, I'm sure you're large enough to be considered a traffic hazard and you never know when some "good samaritan" might come along and want to help you out....[laugh]
 
Don't be fooled by the little worm in it's mouth and try to grab it.

Watching Ax Men and seeing that bayou bubba dive in and pull up big turtles makes me wander how many fingers have been donated over the years.

Sent from the Hyundai of the droids, the Samsung Replenish, using Tapatalk.
 
joeendris said:
OK, today I noticed a snapping turtle on the side of the road. Something wasn't right, as I drove by. I turned around and went back. That's when I noticed that whole back half of the turtle was, essentially, blown out. Some jackass hit the thing and kept going, leaving the snapper in the middle of the road (because it was apparently not enough of an impact to notice?)[angry]

I put my car in the way...enough to keep folks from this turtle and called my local dept. There wasn't enough left of the turtle to save, sadly. Shell was split all the way from stem to stern, pcs were strewn 15-20 feet downwind of the "hit", jaw was smashed in several pcs (part of it was sticking out of its head), etc, you get the idea. And the damn thing was still trying to get to the river....

With Mass laws the way they are, confusing at best, would I have been arrested if I put a round in its head? I would be "discharging" a firearm right on the road. Sadly, this is the third time this year that I've come upon hit-n-run animals.

To be clear, I did take a snapshot of what was left before my locals shot it, so it's clear there wasn't anything anybody could've done.

As it stands, my locals put one in its head.
Click to expand...

What.....The......F*ck?

Are you serious?
 
I wont mess with the snapping variety but any of the other "brands" of turtle i find in the road i will stop and move them along, specially if i am on the bike, i suspect hitting one on the bike could lead to a nasty "get off" that i really dont need.
 
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