Ethics Question: What Do You Do When You Find a Dead Duck?

By Patriot Outdoor News

What would you do?

A couple of weeks ago during teal season, I hiked back to a bay that teal like to use on migration days and found it full of ducks, probably 600 or so. Five hundred and ninety-nine flushed when they saw me, leaving one behind, dead in the water. I had no idea why it had died, or when.

Since the dead duck marked the spot where the birds had been sitting, I set my decoys nearby it. The teal came back immediately and were practically swirling around me as I threw out decoys and worked on a little blind. It was not a question of if I would shoot a limit, it was how a question of long would it take. (The answer was 45 minutes, including several spent looking for and finding one that fell in heavy cover, some picky shot selection, a little bad shooting, and, once, trying to shoot a duck with an empty gun).
At first I let the dead duck lie in the water. But, as I neared a limit, I had a dilemma.

Should I:
1. Just let it lie there, shoot a limit of six ducks and go home? If the game …Read the Rest

Source:: Patriot Outdoor News