There's a stark contrast between the warmth and softness of cuddling a tiny bare-skinned kangaroo joey to having to remove a gun from the trunk of the car and shoot its mother on the roadside.
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But this is the reality for wildlife carers, particularly at this time of the year.
Wildcare member Diane Hinton claimed the taxing title of head shooter for the group based in Queanbeyan.
While Wildcare is primarily a wildlife rescue organisation, the group is offering a "shooters course" for people wishing to help stop injured animals from suffering.
Of the 200 members of the group, only about eight have a licence to euthanise injured animals.
It is illegal for a member of the general public to euthanise an animal.
Ms Hinton said her record for euthanising animals had reached up to four every day during the past few months. Annually, Wildcare rescues and rehabilitates more than 2000 native animals with about a tenth more that have to be euthanised.
"The phone literally hasn't stopped ringing," she said.
"We euthanise hundreds of animals every year."
"We obviously rescue and rehabilitate everything we possibly can, but if you get hit by a car, which is often the case, you come out second best if you're a kangaroo or a wombat so a lot of animals can't be rehabilitated."
While it was Ms Hinton's preference to err on the side of caution when euthanising an animal, she said often it was obvious the animal would not survive.
Ms Hinton said she got her shooters licence a few years ago when she realised a lot of the animals she got called out to were too badly injured to rehabilitate.
"My option was to put it through more pain and suffering to transport it to a vet or to another shooter, and then I thought, well I can do this, it's just another part of the story."
"For someone like myself, I do pretty much everything. I raise joeys, I rehabilitate injured animals and I euthanise."
While Ms Hinton has had her fair share of experience with shooting animals, mainly kangaroos, she admitted each and every time she does it, it takes a toll.
"It affects everyone differently, but personally I would rather rescue something than euthanise it, even though I know I'm actually helping the animal by limiting its suffering."
Being the only shooter who can answer calls during the day, Ms Hinton said she suffers from compassion fatigue every year at this time as a result of the large number of animals that are too injured to survive.
"I know it sounds silly, but I never forget. I can pretty much tell you every animal that I've ever euthanised. If I can possibly move the animal to a place where it's not visible, where it's in a bit of bush land, that's personally what I do," she said.
For further details or to register your interest in the September 5 contact Laurel on 6297 8806 or email training@wildcare.com.au
