One winter, some years ago, I was on a cross country skiing / backpacking trip into the woods in the Northwest. We ran across a marten in a tree. (We call the local species Pine Martens, as do many others in the U.S., but there is another related species that is also called Pine Marten.) Sadly, in those days leg-break traps were still legal and some fur hunter had staked one in a tree, apparently hoping to catch exactly what he caught. It was around -10 to -20 degrees F at the time, and the marten was bleeding rather badly. This left me in a bit of a quandary. I wanted to release the animal, but that would have been seriously illegal in those days and it also had a broken leg and had lost quite a bit of blood. I ended up braining it with a heavy branch to end its suffering. Otherwise it was going to either freeze or bleed to death, while in a great deal of pain. To this day, I am not sure I did the right thing. Lonny Eachus [Posted in FML 7729]