There’s a precept about not being selfish. I think this applies quite well. There’s also one about not killing, but Buddhism is just like anything else - sometimes you have to take the lesser of two evils.
I looked back at the OP of the parent thread. He describes himself as an ‘a la carte’ Buddhist. I don’t think it’s fair to him to rigorously identify what he should or shouldn’t have done in terms of Buddhist philosophy and morality. He sounds as though he has moral code that says ‘don’t hurt animals’ and, more to the point, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
On the Buddhist end of things, I will go out on a limb and state that I’m a Buddhist, and I’d have killed the deer as quickly as possible, with a gun if available, with another tool if not. That said, I’m cool with blood and guts and shit, so again, I suspect it’s less a philosophical issue than a gut issue for Phlsphr.
I suspect if Phlsphr were an al a carte Catholic he’d have found it just as difficult, but the ideas running around in his head would have been about St. Francis instead.
At the root of man’s humanity is empathy. We humans value the preservation of life over eliminating suffering to a very high degree, because we conceptualize a long future with very high value for ourselves.
Phlsphr’s heart is in the right place, but his mind isn’t. He seems ignorant of the fact that animals have very little concept of a future.
I think the lot of you are sanctimonious jerks. It’s really easy to sit on the internet and talk about how easy it would be to dispatch a suffering animal either by shooting it, or bashing it with a rock, or hitting it with a club, or putting a bag over its head with special gas and gassing it (WTF?!?!?); however, none of you were there, and none of you are Philosopher.
Further, as Captain Midnight posted in the other thread:
Just because Philosopher actually has a gun doesn’t mean he could hit anything with it. I’m two minutes away from having a gun in my possession and I doubt I could hit the broad side of a barn. I actually think blowing off 1/3rd of the dear’s head 'cus you have no idea what you’re doing STILL not killing it would be a helluva lot worse than leaving it alone.
Ugh. I’m sure if you hunt, or are used to these thing for another reason (I dunno - grew up on a farm) this would be no problem at all; however, for some of us it would take a long, long time to get psyched up and how dare any of you suggest that Philosopher is a bad guy or had an “epic fail” because he needed to ask for help.
Jesus this board is stupid sometimes.
I believe I’m included in there, since I suggested that if one doesn’t have a gun then bashing the head is a better option than letting an animal suffer. I was replying to the claim that head-bashing isn’t an approved humane method, and suffocation is. But given that most people don’t have a cylinder of nitrogen around, and that trying to put a bag over the head of an injured animal is dangerous and stresses the animal, the non-approved method is more humane. Sorry if I came off like a sanctimonious jerk.
This is the point I was trying to make, Phlsphr made a poor decision. But this was the first time he’d encountered the situation and it presented him with a moral dilemma.
.
Sun in Bumblyville, TN == sun in Colorado. Assuming what things are like elsewhere based on your own existence, is still assuming.
Want to see my Eagles’ Greatest Hits cd case that melted in the sun?
Also, since I responded fairly quickly to his post, either my memory or your time conversion is faulty (I doubt it’s my memory).
Yah - says you. The man was confronted with a situation he’d never been in before (i.e. killing an animal) and scrambled to try to find assistance. We know he called the animal welfare people in his area multiple times we know he called the police, he finally called a neighbour. He did nothing wrong. If you arrive at a situation that you can’t handle yourself and you scramble trying to get help, you’ve done the right thing. It’s wonderful that everyone on the internet is a he-man; however, that has nothing to do with a guy in a real life situation doing the best he can.
Except he didn’t do the best he could. He has a gun, but chose not to use it. The proper authorities would not help him. That gave him a choice: He could either humanely kill the deer, or he could let it suffer. He had the means of providing a quick, painless death. But instead of using it he waffled around trying to find a way that wasn’t as icky.
He’d already made the decision to kill the deer to put it out of its misery. He was just looking for a way that didn’t involve the gun that he has. The proper course of action after the authorities blew him off would have been to either get the gun and get it over with quickly, or to immediately go to the neighbour had have him do it – not come to a message board asking if there’s another way and getting his camera, taking pictures, uploading them, and linking to them. He didn’t do ‘the best he could’. He avoided the situation until it resolved itself. Unfortunately, his inaction caused the deer to suffer for hours.
Once again: I know that he’s never been presented with a situation like this. I know that he simultaneously did not want the deer to suffer, and also didn’t want to kill it. But once he’d made the decision to kill it (or to have it killed), it was a poor decision to not do it quickly and painlessly. It’s not a ‘he-man’ issue. I’m not calling him weak. I sympathise with his dilemma. But he showed poor judgement. He posted at 0750 PDT, and it’s clear he knows the deer has to die. Three and a half hours later he reports that she did. The humane thing to do, since DOW had already told him they won’t come out, would have been to go to the neighbour for assistance instead of posting on a message board.
There was no reason to take and post those pictures.
For the amused consumption by the Dope, of course.
Rule 34?
My ‘hammer’ comment was sarcasm.
If the dude had a gun and didn’t use it, but allowed the animal to suffer in agony for several more hours, then he is guilty of animal cruelty, in my book.
Are you suggesting that we make dead deer porn?
IIRC, Phlsphr did say he occassionally hunts.
No.
Are YOU suggesting that we make dead deer porn?
I have to finish up some stuff at work, and then go to my brother-in-law’s for supper. I’m free after that though. 
Well, in the thread he said he does NOT hunt, and has the guns for target practice. I will point out that just because you shoot at targets occasionally, doesn’t mean you’re any good at it, or even hit anything.
Further, if you look at the time stamps, he posted at 8:50 AM asking for suggestions. He then posted at 9:34 AM that he had contacted his neighbour who was coming over to assist him - that looks like about 45 minutes to me - not hours and hours.
He then posted at 12:09 PM indicating that when they got there the animal had died already. Of course, that doesn’t mean that’s when they got there. They probably got there at 9:50 ish (25 minutes or so after he posted the pics which I agree is odd; however, we all do odd things when we’re stressed out) and the dear had died. I assume the neighbour then helped him move the dear to the road, perhaps they went inside and tidied up, had a snack, etc. I realize all that last stuff is pure speculation; however, just because you would like real-time updates doesn’t mean that you’re getting them.
Yes.
Kay.
Okay, I was mistaken, he said it was for target shooting and home defense, not hunting. Sorry 'bout that.
I still disagree with his choice, personally.
There are a lot of things that we know are the right thing to do but we can’t personally do them.
smiling bandit you’re a dick for bringing this up.
Local hospitals and nursing homes are full of the suffering and terminally ill.
Looks like you got some work to do.