Well, Bartkowski, I agree that minimizing suffering is what we should strive for. But like Thernlund showed, not everyone cares about it. Some hunters would rather take a chance on a long shot, perhaps with a short range weapon, and hope for the best, feeling the possibility of a kill is better than letting it walk. Of course, I realize that even if someone feels that way, not many will admit to that on a hunting forum!
But I also think there are times when it may not matter, or at least it wouldn't to me. Personally, anything that is a pest, I would say, shoot it with what ever you weapon you have at the time. As a rule, I would not advocate shooting an animal beyond the effective range of the weapon on hand, especially during a sport hunt.
But let's say, for example that a raccoon, coyote, fox, or some other predator was getting into my chickens and killing them, or being a nasty pest in some other way.
If I came out with my 12 ga. shotgun one night and said pest was standing 75 yards away and that is the only shot I had, BANG! If it doesn't kill it, I hope it eats his butt up so good he won't come back. If it goes off to die, that is great. I could see the same senario for a farmer who may see a coyote anywhere on his farm and has had problems with them getting his livestock. In some cases, dead later even if it does suffer is better than continuing on as a nuisance.
I have known guys who, after a kill, will say a prayer for the "soul" of an animal. Of course, they don't have souls or killing them would be murder. But I still don't like to make things suffer needlessly regardless. But like Thernlund mentioned, not everyone cares very much about it. I hunted with a guy that had no remorse for wounding a hog with out recovery. He said it was just an old hog, and if it went off to die, so what? He just went after another one.
I have respect to an animals ability to make my hunt challenging, and I have an overall respect to life as creatures God has made. I also know that we are put in charge of all creatures, and somethings in this life need to be culled. Either because they are a danger, or because they have become a pest. If deer become so populated that they are nothing more than a nuisance (and they are in some places) then they need to be culled. And a man can only butcher or donate so many. So in some cases, getting rid of a pest may be more important than whether they are processed or how much they suffer. A fleeting opportunity which could result in suffering before death may be seen as better than no opportunity at all. The topic about the minimum round for a coyote indicated to me that perhaps some people might not have the same care for a non-suffering shot on one species that they deem ethical for another, and I am not judging anyone for it, I simply find it interesting. Not that I don't have feelings about suffering, I was simply attempting be objective, and not to biasedly lead the topic a certain way.
