I'm a terrible person. (sortof)

[theonlyblaze2]

Yeah, I had to kill a rabbit my father had hit with the car. He was leaving the house and accidently ran over the back part of it. He must have not seen it, as he just drove on like nothing happened. I grabbed the only thing I could(a ballpien hammer) and put the little guy out of his misery. Christ, I have never felt so bad. I have seen people in terrible conditions, but nothing like this little bunny's cries of pain have affected me.

So as a person who has been through a similar event, don't feel so bad. You did the best thing you could do for the situation. Though, in the future, put up some chicken wire to keep out the rabbits. It is cheap and it works better than killing them.

 

[Da Orky Man]

snip

I shot a bird once, and had to finish it off close, but I did end up eating it afterwards. Very little guilt here.

 

[BanicRhys]

You're not a terrible person.

They're pests.
You used a low powered weapon to protect others.
You put it out of its misery.
You feel bad.

 

[Jodah]

I kill varmints at close range sometimes. Racoons, Opossums, Woodchucks, etc. because they are harmful to the farm. I never act like your brother though, nor do I watch in indifference. Just because the animal is harmful to the farm doesn't mean it needs to suffer. If I can't drop it in one shot to the head I will keep shooting until it stops moving.


Thats the reason I got a .223 in fact. We were using a .22LR for awhile but at 100-150 yards it lacks the power to drop some animals in one shot. With the .223 the only time I can't drop my target with a single shot is at night if I can't see the head well enough.

One of the basic things you learn from any experienced hunter is that if you cannot drop a stationary animal in a single shot, you shouldn't be hunting.

 

[LongAndShort]

No, you're not a terrible person.
Besides, rabbits are evil little bastards trying to conquer the world through weight of numbers. We have to stop them now before it's too late.

 

[Mr. Google]

One of the basic things you learn from any experienced hunter is that if you cannot drop a stationary animal in a single shot, you shouldn't be hunting.

Well to be fair I'm not trying to be a hunter. Also are gun's havn't been used in a long time so they were poorly sighted. Were not the best of shots but again most of the time it only takes one shot.

 

[Grayjack]

I killed a bird with a rock once when I was six. I have no idea why I did it. I do remember crying after though.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I don't think you're horrible. In my opinion, you have a reason to kill rabbits and you didn't want to see one suffer because it was almost dead.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I'm going to be honest:

Killing a animal without it actually trying to kill somone is a sure fire way to get me to hate you.

No offensive aganist anybody personally, but yeah.

Same with me. Unless it is an accident there is no excuse for hurting wildlife that isn't messing with you. There has to be a non-killing rabbit way to protect the plants.

Live and let live... Until this happens of course:

 

[puff ball]

this is kind of off topic but you should read the book watership down, this really reminds me of it.

ot no Ive never killed anything larger then a cockroach at any range. all though i don't blame you for protecting your yard.

 

[Hashime]

Rabbits destroy garden, you destroy rabbit, I get it. I might also do the same if the deterrents we use were not working (commercial stuff). I did massacre a family of mice with a line trimmer working at a golf course (on purpose, we had a mouse problem) and stomped every one that did not die instantly. The only time I felt bad s when a frog jumped into my trimmer and was blinded/ had its feet removed. I instantly put it out of its misery with a stomp.

 

[Volstag9]

Yes. When i was 7 my friend and i were in the woods when he saw a raccoon which had been causing him trouble. Both of us shot at it with a bow and arrow.

He knocked it out of the tree and then stabbed it with the arrow. I didn't cry, nor did i feel bad. It was a strange feeling. It certainly wasn't of joy.

I left soon after and we remained good friends until i moved away 3 years later. its been 10 or so years and i still think of it. Yet i still don't feel sad.

 

[astrav1]

So in our backyard we have rabbits that will eat out plants. We have decided to shoot them more than a few years back to stop them from destroying all the hard work we did on our yard which became incredibly frustrating might I add. Today after dinner my brother saw one in the bushes so we grabbed some low powered guns (Lead air rifles) but enough to kill...well a rabbit. So he shot it at first and it went jumping around and spazzing out. My brother was laughing very hard because he is horrible (Not at it's death but at it's jumping around. Not saying it's much better still might have to get his head checked out) while I just sort of looked on indifferently. After a bit we had to go pick it up and when I got near it it was breathing very hard and i knew it wasn't going to die soon. So I got the gun and I decided to shoot it again to put it out of its misery. When I put the gun up to its small body and it looked at me and started to whimper. I started freaking out because it was so terrible. I thought this is for the better! I finally shot it and it was more or less screaming. I don't care for animals too much but it was really really bad! I'm (obviously) recovering and it's fine now but still. Question: Have you ever killed something at close range? It's very strange...and I dislike it highly.

Edit: To add we would use a powerful and 100% surefire gun if we didn't live in a place with many neighbors. The only reason why it didn't die right away though as they usually do is because it was hit in a strange spot near it's spine. I didn't do an autopsy nor would I know what I was looking for but still I shot it the second time because I felt bad for it. My brother wasn't laughing when he shot it nor when I shot it. So he is only slightly crazy but hopefully not a sociopath. Also If you dislike that I kill them in the first place I'm sorry. There are probably some things that you do that I dislike to and life goes on.

Did you at least eat it?

 

[otakon17]

When I was 12 my family moved to a 800 acre farm. My stepfather raised chickens on this farm. One day, while it was pouring down rain, me and my cousin who was visiting decided to go outside after the rain let up. While roaming about, we came upon a lone chicken outside one of the houses. We took it to the garage nearby, gave it some grain and then went to see what we had to do with it. I was told we had to kill it, to insure that it didn't give the other chickens in whatever house we put it back it didn't get sick. We didn't know rightly how to break it's neck, and foolishly tried hanging it. It only put it into a great deal of pain. Eventually, we took it to the Morten Building, an area of the farm where used soil and chicken corpses are put for shipping out as fertilizer later on. I threw it into the pile, and stabbed it with a shovel, taking off it's head. It was just a damn chicken, I eat some at least once a week, it was being raised to die anyway, and yet I bawled like a baby. I can't stand killing something, I can't. It's even worse since I LOVE fried chicken, I'm a damn hypocrite.

 

[Kiwilove]

I can understand why it may have been traumatizing. I suggest looking for alternate solutions to garden pests in the future, like chicken wire.

 

[camsha]

Sad but i don't think i've ever heard rabbits make noise so i'm confused.

 

[FernandoV]

yeah, one night I found a bird that my cat had injured and brought to the doorstep, it was a dove or something and there was a rather large cut on its back, over one of its wings (looked like the whole wing was rather ruined) I got a pellet gun and pumped it up allot then shot it in the head, then once more to make sure it was dead, it was very strange

also, you should stop shooting rabbits, they are just trying to survive

If we go by that theory you best be ready for some malaria man because those mosquitos are just trying to survive too.

 

[dj Facchiano]

so much self-righteous bull shit in this thread... Rabbits, like rats and mice and bugs are pests. Nobody here has a problem if I squash a tarantula with my foot, or squeeze a rat in half with a rat trap. But if its a cute fluffy adorable rabbit, and I do what we all do with ugly non cute, non fluffy pests then I guess that makes me a baby murdering lunatic. Oh double standards and there shenanigans