Grievously injured racoon

I had a guest staying in her trailer come up to me tonight and say she heard a crying juvenile raccoon injured in the road. My wife and her three friends all agreed "it will probably die quickly". I went out with the original witness and saw 3 cars miss the poor guy, and he tried to move his head but was clearly unable to move his legs. So when I gently assessed he could not move from a safe distance with stick, I pulled him by the tail out of the road and in doing so saw viscera and a lot of blood but little reaction besides labored breathing. I then felt the only right thing to do was put an end to its suffering with two swift blows to the neck and head with a base ball bat sized stick, and it was unresponsive within 10seconds. All the women here agreed it was the right thing to do, but it was clear that I was the only person willing to do what I did or anything at all, and it was just about the most gruesome thing I can remember ever doing. I can imagine better tools but the time of suffering was my main concern. I really don't think a vet would have tried to save this poor fella. Damn this feels shitty.

I tried to delete this post becasue of the bumout factor but couldn't figure out how, so I guess I'll just go on to ask this question: when did the, " damn, I should put that animal out of it's misery" idea first pop up in evolutionary history? I have heard of wolves and other social predators doing this with their own pack members, so i guess it was pre hominid...

Not sure when we became so compassionate but you did the right thing. So much wildlife suffers because of mankinds progress. To end that little ones suffering was IMO absolutely the right thing to do... Doesn't make it easy though.

Never easy, but yes, I agree that you did the right thing...

It's odd that we trap, kill, and eat adult animals (I like coon) but go out of our way to save young ones.
I've done it myself.

For what it's worth, I think it's completely appropriate to have been willing to do something, and to also feel crappy about it.  That's probably the healthiest combo possible.  I'm sorry you drew the short stick, though.  Couldn't have been a mile or two down the road, could it?  

Ben, it's called courage.
You do the right thing even though it feels horrible to do it. You "paid the price without counting the cost".