By now you’ve probably heard about the hunter from Indiana who ended up permanently paralyzed and on a ventilator after falling from a tree. While it’s always good news to know there’s one less armed animal-killer out there trying to gun-down the innocent, this is a case of an injured hunter—rendered essentially harmless to anyone but himself and his caregivers—choosing to do the right thing.
The miracles of modern medicine include morphine and other drugs that can spare a person from the unbearable pain which often accompanies such an injury. Yet, just as not every illness can be cured, there is a limit to how much spinal damage can be reversed. At times, the most humane resolution is to allow a suffering individual to peacefully pass, or even gently hasten the passing.
Despite the national obsession with health care these days, people rarely hear a word about the choices available to patients, or the fact that one can always refuse life-prolonging treatment (as long as they’re still able to communicate, or have previously expressed your wishes in writing). Kudos to the family of the hunter who must have known his wishes well enough to ask to bring him out of it and allow him to tell the staff at the hospital that he was definitely not interested in marking time in a rehab facility, hooked up to a ventilator.
For all its marvels, modern medicine is in a big way responsible for the rapidly worsening human overpopulation crisis. I don’t know if his decision was based in part on selflessness, but if more people were to choose no to be when by all intents and purposes they really aren’t alive anymore, the human population might start to level off and eventually not be quite such a burden on the planet.
I had an unwelcome opportunity to end the suffering of a mortally wounded band-tailed pigeon (a wild, forest-dwelling bird, native to the Western North America) who showed up at my birdfeeder with her lower bill shot completely off (probably by a dumbass neighbor kid who liked to shoot at everything that moved with his 22). The pigeon was unable to ever feed herself again, so I’m not sure if she returned to this familiar territory to somehow assuage her nagging hunger, or if she was hoping I could do something to help.
Like the paralyzed hunter whose only hope of living was via a feeding tube, there was no way this poor pigeon had any real chance of long term survival without some kind of major heroics. Since medical science has yet to invent a bionic bill for lowly birds, all I could do was shoot the poor thing to instantly put an end to her misery.
Band-tailed pigeon photo©Jim Robertson
Exposing the Big Game 
I read an article about a prosthetic beak designed and built for an eagle who, like your pigeon, had his bill shot off by an asshole. But, like you said, that wasn’t going to happen for this bird. Yours was a sad but understandable and compassionate decision. As for overpopulation, I blame selfish, thoughtless procreators more than modern medicine. NO MORE HUMAN BABIES ALREADY!
Thanks for your great comments. Yes, we humans seem bent on continuing our fecundity, which is destroying the planet. I am so glad I chose not to breed, and I think there are many out there, who if they admitted it, would not have had children after all. It is a very, very selfish thing to do on planet that is so over run with humans, crowding out all other life.
You’re right about the procreators, but the increase in life expectancy, thanks to modern medicine, has also added greatly to overpopulation.
I made a choice to have only one child. I am so glad, too. He’s a great guy and computer genius and animal lover. He has one child also, who is gay and doesn’t want kids. So I will have company in my old age but not living with the guilt of overtaxing the planet. And by not having to put a bunch of whiz kids through MIT, I was able to keep 63 acres all natural prime wildlife habitat. My house and yard are 5 acres, right by the road.It’s wicked beautiful here.
Sorry about the pigeon. I had a similar experience as a kid except the bird fell dying out of the sky. I know who shot it. As usual another sicko neighbor kid with no impluse control.
I didn’t think you’d be the kind to have guns in your possession Jim. Shame about the bird
I’ve got a few around, mostly for the very reason I mentioned here.
So sorry for the loss of this bird. There are worse things than death. You did the best thing for this beautiful animal. And, so glad, the hunter did what he did Too bad it wasn’t done after the first time we killed an animal. That would be the honorable thing to do.
Thanks Rosemary.
I imagine it was very difficult shoot the poor bird, but it was the right thing to do.
Yes, it definitely was difficult, but not as hard as watching her suffer.
I feel far worse about the loss of the bird than I ever will about the loss of any hunter.
You get a tougher skin when you learn that sometimes there is suffering worse than death. Thank you for doing the tough deed cleaning up after someone else’s cruelty. I learned this the hard way when I started volunteering with a group that does outreach programs for the outdoor dogs of a Detroit-ish like city. There is no bottom to the suffering people do to these animals and as there are not enough homes willing to take in abused pit bulls with medical and behavior issues from questionable backgrounds I’ve learned sometimes you can’t save them all though after a really tough day I have to withdraw from society for a few days before its safe for me to walk amongst them again.
Yep.
Thanks!
Reblogged this on Sherlockian's Blog.
I would have bawled my eyes out. You definitely did the right thing. Poor bird.
Thanks, it was sad, to have to do it, but sickening and infuriating to see the pigeon suffering that way.