A little mini-rant about animals.

[Aurora Elegance]

This is something that's been bothering me for a long time. I live in Detroit, MI, which is a pretty busy and sprawling cities. Cars abound, roads are almost always busy, and things are always fast-paced here. And that's what irks me.

This past year, I have seen an innumerable amount of animals lying dead on the streets because some jackasses ran over them. I've seen birds, squirrels, dogs, cats, and raccoons lying on the ground as roadkill and it saddens me deeply. It pains me because it demonstrates the total lack of regard that most people have for animals. The fact that an animal's life was abruptly ended because some asshole was in a hurry to go nowhere frustrates me deeply. Any thoughts?

[LadyShea]

This is something that's been bothering me for a long time. I live in Detroit, MI, which is a pretty busy and sprawling cities. Cars abound, roads are almost always busy, and things are always fast-paced here. And that's what irks me.

This past year, I have seen an innumerable amount of animals lying dead on the streets because some jackasses ran over them. I've seen birds, squirrels, dogs, cats, and raccoons lying on the ground as roadkill and it saddens me deeply. It pains me because it demonstrates the total lack of regard that most people have for animals. The fact that an animal's life was abruptly ended because some asshole was in a hurry to go nowhere frustrates me deeply. Any thoughts?

Roadkill saddens me too. I grew up in Colorado near the USAFA. The deer herd on Academy land is protected and would occasionally decide to cross I-25 en masse, I once counted 15 that had been hit. There was always dead squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, foxes etc. I have seen animals jump in front of a car so quickly that it was either hit the animal, or cause a major accident trying to avoid it or stop. I have been lucky in that I have only ever hit a sick pigeon because when I tried to go around it it flew straight into my car instead of away. Most times it is not a matter of lack of regard, but simply being unable to avoid it.

[viscousmemories]

I'm with LadyShea on this, AE. I don't think most people kill animals with their cars because they're careless assholes, I think they probably don't even see the animal until it's too late. I agree that it's sad to see a lot of dead animals around, though.

[Dingfod]

I am not going to swerve or brake hard to avoid hitting an animal at the risk of an accident that might harm me or some other person. Squirrels and opossums are getting run over all the time out here where I live. It doesn't seem to matter whether you swerve or brake, they still might run right under your tires as you pass, their pea sized brains don't allow for a lot of logical thinking when they're panicked.

I ran over a squirrel with my motorcycle once, a vehicle on which I am even less likely to swerve to avoid an animal as small as a squirrel. I even hit our Border Collie that was running alongside the motorcycle as I was taking off, the dog, for no particular reason, decided to cut left right into the side of the motorcycle, it got hit in the head with the front crashguard and my foot at about 30 mph. That cured the dog of chasing the motorcycle for good. A motor club member friend once wrote "Never run over anything bigger than you can eat in one sitting." Darn right, too dangerous.

I once hit a deer, but it was minor. I was driving to work on Foothill Blvd in Salt Lake City at 5:30 AM one autumn morning. There is a place where there is a Congregationalist Church across the street from an LDS Ward, lots of delicious shrubbery on both sides of the road. As I approached the churches, an entire herd of deer ran out of the Congregationalist Church yard across the road right in front of me from left to right. I was going about 45, which is the speed limit on that part of the road.

I jammed on the brakes, activating the ABS system, which keeps the tires from skidding, even in full panic stops. The very last deer crossing the road got smacked in its right hip by the right side of the grill of my Jeep just as the Jeep was coming to a stop. The impact knocked the deer down, but it immediately got up and ran off, hopping over a hedge to join its pals in the LDS Ward yard. There was an almost perfectly circular impression in the plastic chrome grill, about like what it would've looked like if someone had taken their open hand and smacked it hard enough to crack the plastic.

But, that wasn't the incident that made me decide sometimes evasive action is worse than hitting the animals. I was driving down the highway outside Cortez, Colorado one night in our 1983 Toyota pickup, my wife on the passenger side with my oldest daughter, age four at the time in the middle. There were cars with bright lights approaching from the other direction which seemed to be blinking a little, so I slowed down a little bit, wondering what was causing that. Right about then I saw that I was going about 60 mph into a herd of deer. It was their legs that interrupted the headlights of the oncoming cars as they walked across the road.

I jammed on the brakes, locking up the rear brakes, steered the truck around the first few deer, but then the truck swerved almost completely sideways one direction, with me correcting as best I could. Then the tires caught traction, sending the truck swerving the other direction, then quickly back the other way. It went back and forth several times more. As we were sliding sideways I could see deer everywhere, some running, some just standing there.

When I finally got the truck under control, I was on the wrong side of the road facing the oncoming cars, completely stopped with the engine dead. We didn't hit a single deer. If those cars had been a few hundred yards closer, we'd have been hit head on. Hitting a deer is far better than a head on collision. I will not swerve for them unless it is safe to do so. I'll brake for them as best I can without putting anyone else at risk, but swerve, I will not.

So, chalk me up for a handful of those dead squirrels you've seen, and one raccoon I ran over with my truck. I don't mean to or even want to kill an animal needlessly, but sometimes it is strictly unavoidable.

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Other animal - vehicle accidents:

I have a former coworker who lost his wife because they hit a horse one rainy night when the horse bolted into the roadway. The couple was OK when the car came to a stop because they were seat belted. However, the horse's legs were in the windshield, it panicked and kicked her to death. When help arrived, the horse was walking around in the ditch, it's only wound was a gash in its side and a few on it's legs. But my buddy's wife's head was caved in.

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A family friend lost their son when his friend swerved his Chevy Blazer to avoid hitting a deer, the vehicle slid off the road and rolled down an embankment.

[Adora]

Any thoughts?

Yeah. Can you send some of the drivers in your area to me? Got a little dog problem I need gettin' rid of.

[bobeh]

I agree that sometimes it is carelessness that causes animal fatalities. Sometimes just too much speed. But unless speed limits are slowed to about 30 mph at night in areas where there is wildlife I don't think there would be much difference.

I lived in an area where there were a lot of moose. You just can't see them until it's too late - unless you get lucky. And a lot of people get killed hitting them.

I've hit a deer...I was going 50 mph and the deer thought it could run across the road in front of me faster than that. Evolution tells them that they can outrun anything in the forest...and it hasn't yet got the message to them that human mechanical objects might be a bit faster. At least that's my theory. On the other hand some animals seem to have a good sense of speed...most dogs for example. Once they've been clipped once or so they seem to know if they can make it across the road or not.

Anyway...I'm all for slowing down where animals are plentiful...and being careful. But realistically it is not going to happen to any great degree. And if an animal is in front of me...and a car is coming toward me on the other side...good bye animal. If no cars are coming...depends on the vehicle. My Corolla can get around almost anything without losing control. Little squeek of the tires and zip zip you're around it. My van...well, if you want to be upside down in the ditch you can try it. Mostly try to keep it going more or less straight. Gentle turns.

[Roland98]

Geez, you should see my drive up and down US-23 every day. There's always at least one deer, and generally quite a few raccoons, opossums, groundhogs, and the occasional fox, dog, or cat.

Even though I grew up in a rural area, I never hit a deer myself until I was visiting my sister last year in Michigan. And then, it actually hit me; it literally bounced off the side of my car and I didn't even see it until it was gone. It ran back off into the field, so I guess it was okay.

But realistically it is not going to happen to any great degree. And if an animal is in front of me...and a car is coming toward me on the other side...good bye animal.

Exactly. I can generally avoid animals in my neighborhood (we are overrun with squirrels) because it's very slow (my streets even have speed bumps), but if I'm on the highway or something, or even in busy town traffic and obeying the speed limits, I'm not going to risk myself or my passengers to make a wild swerve or slam on the brakes to avoid an animal. Even though it saddens me to do so. :(

[Corona688]

Even though I grew up in a rural area, I never hit a deer myself until I was visiting my sister last year in Michigan. And then, it actually hit me; it literally bounced off the side of my car and I didn't even see it until it was gone. It ran back off into the field, so I guess it was okay. Reminds me of an anecdote from IIDB, sadly I can't remember who said it and trying to search for it could bring IIDB to it's knees for several minutes... I saw someone get hit by a squirrel once. We were stopped at a red light, and this squirrel jumps off the curb, jumps at a hubcap, bounces off, and runs back into the brush. Weirdest hit-and-run I ever saw.

[Adora]

There's a point I make about giving a damn about native animals in my area, and then all the rest. Native birds, possums, ducks, lizards, etc I do care about.

Dogs, cats, and rodents? Nahp. First of all, there is a chronic dog problem in my neighbourhood. I live in your average lower-middle-class Australian suburb, where every second house is a fucking rogan (bogan with a little bit more cash) and they have 'Rex' or 'Bully' or (ugh, this is so pathetic) 'Bundy' and 'Jack' (named after you-know-what). Or they have 'Snuffles' and 'Merlin' or 'Louise III' who are as equally untrained and roam through the gardens in the neighbourhood, eating birds and shitting in gardens. Just yesterday I had some kind of bulldog-cross-something and a fucking runt of a mut in my backyard and I have no idea where they came from, but the council can't do anything about it (they can only pick up dogs on the street- not private property). There is only two dog owners I know who have bothered to train their dogs properly (taken him to dog school, never lets it go inside the house before the master, makes sure it doesn't bark etc etc), and that's nice. They're okay dogs, and I would feel sad if they got run over.

The rest? They make me want to buy a mack truck and cruise the streets. There's a point where I get sick of seeing stupid fucking owners walking their dogs not carrying a plastic bag and cleaning up after their precious mongrel, and dogs roaming in my yard, jumping over other neighbour's fences and barking at all hours of the day and night. The local cats also seem to have a thing for mating along the side of my house just under my window, and I'm a good shop with a kitchen object these days. They kill local wildlife as well, and I've had the unfortunate experience of coming across 3 dead bluetongues in the past year (poor things T_T;;). That is so not cool and yeah, I'll confess I'm a bit of a lizard person. I used to play with dragons in my backyard when I was younger. Now they're all gone because of the imported, untrained wildlife.

If we can fucking cull kangaroos in the bush when their numbers get too high and they start harming the environment, why can't we do it with these little buggers? Because they're some irresponsible fuck's precious woobie? *snorts* If they're so loving of their pet, why don't they look after it properly? Fucking introduced species...

Anyway, I've been in cars that have hit snakes. They're a bit messy, because they get caught in the wheels and sometimes aren't dead properly. You've got to be careful and have a very long umbrella or something on you. We hit a wallabie or small kangaroo once on holiday, but we were kind of in a rush because my brother was really sick and it was night. Mostly it's just cats and dogs occasionally, though a schoolbus I was in did get a cat once, which provided us all with much entertainment before the day began. I've stopped and got out of a car once or twice to help a possum or echidna across the road. There's a bloke I know who took up fox hunting in the local scrub when he hit one of them once and found out they were a dangerous introduced species and very bad pest. Their numbers aren't high here on the mainland, but in places like Tasmania they're a major problem. Mostly on the main roads you see dead birds though. Magpies, miners, occasionally something like a gala. Not cool.