wounded elk - what would you have done?

[RichL025]

Just wanted to ask if anyone had been in this situation before, I'm still not sure I did the right thing...

Coming home from a local ski mountain yesterday, there was a wounded elk in the road - this was still pretty far up a rural highway, several miles out from town still. It was obvious he had been hit by a car - there was some broken side-view mirror pieces on the road, and a minivan pulled off to one side a few yards down the road. The elk was trying to stand up but it was obvious it either had a spinal cord injury with paralysis of his rear legs, or both his rear legs were broken. The animal was crying in obvious pain.

My carry pistol was in the car - it is a 9mm loaded with 147 gr hollowpoints.

I mulled this over in my head for a few minutes whether I should put the poor animal "out of its misery." There was a steady stream of cars coming down off the mountain (and actually, traffic was a bit backed up because of the elk), so I elected not to take any action, for fear of "freaking out" anyone watching (liberal Seattlites). I called 911 (surprisingly I had reception there) and after being transferred a few times to different dispatchers, I was assured help was on its way. About 15 minutes later a State Trooper vehicle passed me with lights & sirens heading towards the scene.

It wasn't until after I had decided not to take action, where I began wondering whether my 147 gr hollowpoints would not have even done the job? My thoughts involved a coup-de-grace to the head, but I realized I have no idea how thick an elk's skull is. The absolute worst thing I could have done was to shoot the animal without killing it, simply adding to the agony of it's last minutes.

What do you guys think - did I act prudently because of all the people around, or did I allow the animal to suffer needlessly due to unfounded concerns about either hoplophobia or inadequacy of the ammo? (I assume the state trooper has a shotgun or carbine in his vehicle should he discover his sidearm fail... I of course did not).

What's done is done, but I'm curious to hear other opinions on what you would have done in the same setting.

Rich