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Do deer feel pain?

12K views 100 replies 43 participants last post by  RobertBonner  
#1 ·
Do deer feel pain?

Ran across this today, have no idea of the authors credibility but it seemed on point enough to see if others are familiar with this podcast. I’m not on Facebook so I’m hoping I can figure out how to listen to more.
 
#3 ·
Of course ... they feel pain! :rolleyes:
 
#5 ·
Sad part about hunting for meat is its your survival or theirs.
I'll pick ours every time, so pain however unfortunate it is, is part of that.
It's you're responsibility to take the animal as humanely as possible.

People complain about hunting but don't say much about slaughter houses.
Hung by their hocks and throat sliced open to bleed out, no thank you.
 
#7 ·
Morons ... want to sanitize the animal kingdom. They want to think that technology has made humans above all that. The reality is we're just as vicious and murderous as any animal that's ever lived. We're still stabbing, shooting, bludgeoning, bombing, poisoning, throttling, and blowing each other to bits to this very moment. Since the dawn of civilization 6,000 years ago there's only been something like 250 years without a war going on. I imagine the Neanderthals wared with homosapiens 200,000 years ago too. Cain & Abel anyone ...lol Russia/Ukraine? Every animal feels pain. Frankly, it pains my head to see how some people actually think and what they believe ...lol
 
#29 ·
Before each hunt I offer this prayer...

"Lord, if you allow me to harvest one of your creations, I pray that my aim be true, my arrow fly straight, and may the end come quickly."
I pray a similar prayer myself.

I have read that they go into shock, and don't feel pain. I think they do? I have heard/seen them bawl loudly before.
 
#10 ·
Not too many things really bother me, other than that once in every 5 years you make a bad shot "spine" on a doe or a younger one and they wallow around in circles actually crying almost like bawling. No that gets to me and actually gets me thinking I should be out there. But then I come to my senses and keep hunting.
 
#11 ·
Easy guys, not looking to stir any pot. The podcast was made by what I believe are hunting enthusiasts, not tree huggers. There was nothing in the podcast about cruelty or common non-hunter cries as tossed in above.
My interest in the research was how a seemingly fatally hit deer can run 500 yards or more.
Deer apparently have much higher levels of some
b-endorphins that allow them to block pain when they are in flight as compared to humans. They go on to talk about the difference in blood clotting etc.

Only trying to offer some information on why deer sometimes die so hard.

Image
 
#18 ·
I've had injuries that I didn't feel the pain for a period of time and then I've had paper cuts or small sheetmetal splinters that were horribly painful. So many variables that make each hit on a deer unique. I believe some hits kill them before any pain is felt but I also believe the opposite is true for certain hits. In my mind I feel the most painful are probably gut or muscle hits and I feel the least painful or even no pain would be straight through broadside hits where the entrance and exit pass behind the shoulders.
 
#22 ·
I would also agree that some hits, especially with firearms, that the deer is dead before any pain. The speed and power of bullets is unbelievable.
Some years back, I was doing some in depth research on 12 ga shotgun slugs. I used a shotgun all my life for deer hunting, and was always striving to be the most efficient as possible. Until I closely checked the ballistics of the Sabot slugs I was using, it dawned on me that with the fps pf the bullet, that it when shot at a deer it hit and usually went through the deer before the sound of the shot reached the deer.
 
#20 ·
I have saw deer hit broadside with a bow flinch a little and go back to feeding then just fall over, only once in my life this happened but talked to others that has whitnessed this. So I believe they feel pain expesialy if you hit bone or make a not so perfect shot. 99.9% of the time they take off like they were shot out of a cannon..lol they have to feel some sort of pain.
 
#21 ·
I am currently at the ranch and witnessed a young 2.5 yr 8 pt hopping around while eating. Put the glass on the front elbow and bullet hole and blown out joint. Thought about ending it but he was calm and eating well. We have a 3 legged doe that made it at the front….so I will let nature dictate on this one. If I shoot him is the meat any good right now?….do not know so we will let him walk and if he gets worse then it will be over. Offspring of the current king of the ranch…..pretty rack and that is why someone popped him.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#25 · (Edited)
Well folks, I'll offer this...

We as humans, have a "Fight or Flight" response that is "programmed" into each one of us.
So do Deer and other animals.

Not trying to be ugly, inhuman, or insensitive I'll say this. I have seen people shot in the arm with a .22 pistol and die from it. I have seen people shot mid torso with a .44 Mag and survive.
I pulled up on a stabbing one night with the guy laying in the middle of the street with a steak knife stuck center mass of his heart. Every time the heart would try to beat, the handle of the knife would quiver.
Paramedics grabbed him up and flew to the closest ER. He lived. Go figure.
And btw...the knife had a 6" blade, and it was buried to the hilt.

Adrenaline is a crazy thing. It's what allows a 110-pound Mom to lift a car of her teenage son. I saw a guy fall 75 feet to the ground. Hit the ground and jump up and run about 30 yards before he collapsed. He was dead when he hit the ground. Broke 75% of the bones in his body.

Why would a Deer react differently than one of us? Everyone responds to trauma in a different manner. Everything with a central nervous system feels pain.

That's why you'll hear me preach this....
"Be Ethical in Your Shots".
You owe the animal that much in respect, for the life it just gave for you...
 
#35 · (Edited)
Deer definitely feel pain and no facebook idiocy will convince me otherwise.


How much pain depends on the shot/adrenaline/animal/weapon. Adrenaline can mask lots of pain for a bit but it doesn't last long.

Most gun shots though (atleast for me and my 243) kill them fast enough that they probably feel little/no pain before they expire.
Then do a search for animals being eaten and pain and you will find tons of info
 
#32 ·
Do deer feel pain?

Ran across this today, have no idea of the authors credibility but it seemed on point enough to see if others are familiar with this podcast. I’m not on Facebook so I’m hoping I can figure out how to listen to more.
The answer is yes and no

If they break a leg, an infected cut etc yes

But when they fall to being caught by a predator or are hit by an arrow or bullet that takes them out they don't feel pain as they are dying
 
#33 · (Edited)
The answer is yes and no
If they break a leg, an infected cut etc yes
But when they fall to being caught by a predator or are hit by an arrow or bullet that takes them out they don't feel pain as they are dying
Source please...?
I find it hard to believe that a wounded deer, or most any living creature, that is running to their death, or gasping their last breaths, does not feel any pain.
Adrenaline, or whatever, does not kick in that fast.
But, what do I know and hence the question.
 
#38 ·
Of course animals feel pain. There's tons of examples. Here's a good one how does a single strand electric fence work. It gets touched and it hurts. If cattle or deer couldn't feel pain they would just walk through it. And we would have learned long ago they don't work.

When you go yote hunting you use a injured rabbit or bird call for example, crying out because it's hurt.

Ever heard rabbit dogs catch a rabbit it screams if they don't kill it fast. Most of the time this happens after its shot. The same rabbit dog tear the pad on its food. It hurts they limp and you have to doctor it and put them up until it heals.

This is just simply trying to ignore facts and common scenes making up your own reality so you can feel better about killing things.

Now are Deer tough they sure are. Huge difference between being tough and not feeling pain. Like anything they want to live and will fight to live until they just can't fight no more. Or there injury is just to great to overcome.

Are job is to do as much damage as we can at the point of impact. So the fight for life is as short as possible.

The question shouldn't be about pain. But did it suffer?
 
#45 ·
Reminds me ... of a short story. As a young teenager I was laying on the couch with my black Labrador laying on the floor next to me. My much younger little brother was on top of me being a scutch. He jumped off me and landed right on the dog's cojones. In all my days, in all the sounds I've heard coming out of animals alive or dying, I NEVER heard a howl like that one. :oops: :eek: This is the same dog that ran into a steel bumper on a Jeep while we were going ape in the backyard and barely let out a little whimper. 😂
 
#42 ·
Again, sorry to have stirred up a controversial thread, the title might better have been "How to deer feel pain".
No part of the video says they don't feel pain. Several hijacked the thread and turned it into something it isn't.

I hope some actually watched the 3+- minute video clip. They video mentions "Canadian Researchers" (I stated I can't vouch for their credentials) but the topic was interesting. Key takeaways include:

  • Humans and deer bleed differently
  • Both have Beta-Endorphins that reduce/block pain. Deer seem to have up to 10X the level at some times of the year.
  • Beta-Endorphins kick in during the "flight" response to a stimulus (i.e. arrow or bullet)
  • Beta-Endorphins seem to help with rapid blood clotting (i.e. the blood trail quit)
  • Deer, having many more times the Beta-Endorphins seem to be able to stop bleeding from a wound that might easily be more disabling/fatal for a human

While the clip was on a Facebook (I don't have an account ), but the summary above has nothing to do with
Facebook. Its poorly titled as it deals with how the makeup of deer can cause a different initial response to a stimulus.

The are countless threads about how differently deer react to a shot. I commented "how a "seemingly" fatally hit deer can run 500 yards". In fact the hit might have been high, forward, thru a leg or other non-fatal area.

Again, there are many threads where hunters felt they had made a fatal shot, but had trouble or failed to find the animal. I'm not sure a human could run 500 yards with a 2" hole thru the leg (a poorly placed but maybe fatal wound).

All I was trying say is that the "Canadian Researchers", whoever they may be, have suggested that deer have significantly higher levels of "Beta Endorphins" than human, and this may account for their ability to be very unpredictable when shot. It seems to have some credibility and is worth knowing.
Hope everyone has a good New Year.
 
#47 ·
I have never seen a or heard a well hit animal exhibit extreme pain. I have seen only one deer that was poorly hit blatting in that kind of pain.

I was trained from the beginning of my hunting to kill as quickly as possible. That did include shooting them in the head any time I had a deer inside 50 yards unaware of me. I have shot perhaps 30% of the deer I have killed like that. Many of those deer I was very unsatisfied with the result! The deer of course does not go anywhere. It hits the ground right now. But it also may lash around for a few seconds and rather violently at that. I have seen deer with the cranium completely and very cleanly evacuated by shots like that do exactly the same thing. When I am killing deer, there is not one smidgen of anything other than "Dave is making meat" involved, and Dave does not like to see that violent lashing about happening to his meat. I'd drop someone in his tracks if he did a stunt like that to my my meat with a baseball bat.

About fifty or so years ago I shot one looking at me such that the bullet exited the skull out the bottom towards the back. That deer was different! The head just sort of fell in slower than normal fashion and the body just sort of followed it to the ground. It was as if someone and just turned off the master switch! Being one of those people who cannot live without an explanation I did a THOROUGH exam of what hell I had done. The only thing I found different was that I had destroyed the brainstem. I intentionally shot the next opportunity just under the base of the skull and damned if it didn't produce the same result. In the intervening years I have shot many deer like that. All produced virtually the same result. That's the only way I have been able to produce instant death without the least bit of that lashing around. The brain stem is about the size of your thumb, and requires a very precision rifle and shooter to accomplish the job, and certainly is not for all but the best in terms of equipment and skill. But that is an instant kill, a painless kill, and doesn't involve that violent lashing around. The only movement that takes place after a brain stem hit that I have ever seen is maybe a couple minutes after, a leg(s) may move a little bit, as if Bambi is tryin to make a step slowly. I think that's just the muscles running out of oxygen. That hit will shut off all respiratory activity and all heart pumping instantly.

I have tried for years to duplicate this shooting squirrels. It can be done if you place the bullet just under their ear. Squirrel brain stems are tiny and a .22 lr does not afford the destruction that accompanies a CF rifle so there is some luck with them involved, but when you get lucky, the result is identical, the switch just gets turned off.

Before any halfwits start in with the BS about I will shoot their jaw off and Bambi will die a slow and horribly painful death, KNOW THIS...I have seen more deer shot in the head when shooting at the body and just flat out missed by other people, than intentionally. I put thousands of rounds down range per year solving rifles, and have never even considered taking a rifle hunting that would not keep ALL it's shots inside and inch at 100 yards. When I load ammunition, it's for one rifle and only one rifle. I have never in 60 odd years of reloading not clearly labeled the ammunition I load as the what each component is and what rifle it is for. Bambi always telegraphs a movement before it happens if you are paying attention. Ears move. Eyes move. Nose moves.

That's the only way I know of to kill animals with zero pain. Most animals are able to mask pain pretty well. Speculating about how much pain they experience is a fools errand. Some experience a great deal of what appears to be intense pain. Evolution has conditioned them every bit as well to mask pain as it has predators to spot and focus on pain. Hand in glove states the relationship as simply as can be done.
 
#50 ·
I have never seen a or heard a well hit animal exhibit extreme pain. I have seen only one deer that was poorly hit blatting in that kind of pain.

I was trained from the beginning of my hunting to kill as quickly as possible. That did include shooting them in the head any time I had a deer inside 50 yards unaware of me. I have shot perhaps 30% of the deer I have killed like that. Many of those deer I was very unsatisfied with the result! The deer of course does not go anywhere. It hits the ground right now. But it also may lash around for a few seconds and rather violently at that. I have seen deer with the cranium completely and very cleanly evacuated by shots like that do exactly the same thing. When I am killing deer, there is not one smidgen of anything other than "Dave is making meat" involved, and Dave does not like to see that violent lashing about happening to his meat. I'd drop someone in his tracks if he did a stunt like that to my my meat with a baseball bat.

About fifty or so years ago I shot one looking at me such that the bullet exited the skull out the bottom towards the back. That deer was different! The head just sort of fell in slower than normal fashion and the body just sort of followed it to the ground. It was as if someone and just turned off the master switch! Being one of those people who cannot live without an explanation I did a THOROUGH exam of what hell I had done. The only thing I found different was that I had destroyed the brainstem. I intentionally shot the next opportunity just under the base of the skull and damned if it didn't produce the same result. In the intervening years I have shot many deer like that. All produced virtually the same result. That's the only way I have been able to produce instant death without the least bit of that lashing around. The brain stem is about the size of your thumb, and requires a very precision rifle and shooter to accomplish the job, and certainly is not for all but the best in terms of equipment and skill. But that is an instant kill, a painless kill, and doesn't involve that violent lashing around. The only movement that takes place after a brain stem hit that I have ever seen is maybe a couple minutes after, a leg(s) may move a little bit, as if Bambi is tryin to make a step slowly. I think that's just the muscles running out of oxygen. That hit will shut off all respiratory activity and all heart pumping instantly.

I have tried for years to duplicate this shooting squirrels. It can be done if you place the bullet just under their ear. Squirrel brain stems are tiny and a .22 lr does not afford the destruction that accompanies a CF rifle so there is some luck with them involved, but when you get lucky, the result is identical, the switch just gets turned off.

Before any halfwits start in with the BS about I will shoot their jaw off and Bambi will die a slow and horribly painful death, KNOW THIS...I have seen more deer shot in the head when shooting at the body and just flat out missed by other people, than intentionally. I put thousands of rounds down range per year solving rifles, and have never even considered taking a rifle hunting that would not keep ALL it's shots inside and inch at 100 yards. When I load ammunition, it's for one rifle and only one rifle. I have never in 60 odd years of reloading not clearly labeled the ammunition I load as the what each component is and what rifle it is for. Bambi always telegraphs a movement before it happens if you are paying attention. Ears move. Eyes move. Nose moves.

That's the only way I know of to kill animals with zero pain. Most animals are able to mask pain pretty well. Speculating about how much pain they experience is a fools errand. Some experience a great deal of what appears to be intense pain. Evolution has conditioned them every bit as well to mask pain as it has predators to spot and focus on pain. Hand in glove states the relationship as simply as can be done.
It's the only ... shot that's sanctioned by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) as acceptable euthanasia. It's the shot the pros use. They drop instantaneously where they stand.