What would you do if you ran over something in the car?

Birker2020

Birker2020

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Sorry for morbid post but I am really just wondering how many of you would go back and check that the animal you ran over was dead or would you just drive on? If you hadn't run over it would you not feel responsible for checking on its wellbeing? Or would it depend if it was a domestic animal like a cat rather than something like a squirrel or rabit? Maybe you would be scared in case you saw something you would never forget or be able to deal with?

Yesterday afternoon I came across a cat that had just been hit and killed by a car lying in the road a couple of people standing next to it so I pulled over and asked them if they wanted me to take it to the vets to get it scanned to see if it had a chip so we could trace the owner. I got a dustbin liner out of my car and asked someone to lift it onto the dustbin liner for me (not very good dealing with lifting little dead bodies of animals) and put my finger tip on its eyeball to check any reaction. There was none so it was dead.

Someone said that they thought they knew who owner the cats, just a few doors down from where the cat lay so although I offered to go and break the news he kindly said that he would and then a chap came out of his house and said it was his and gathered it in his arms. His wife came out of the house and started screaming and sobbing when she found out it was their cat, it was very sad and upsetting and I really felt for them both. He said he had kids in the house and didn't want them to see the cat, I can imagine there was a lot of heartache in that house last night.

I've bought a little 'thinking of you' card that I am going to put through their letterbox later as I want them to know their cat didn't suffer any (a little white lie as I don't know if it did die outright as I didn't see it hit)

I always look if I see a small (non domestic) animal lying in the road, and try and see if its moving as I drive up to it. If I think it is and its obviously beyond help then i will drive over it so it doesn't suffer. I have often turned the car around and gone back to check on animals I have seen in the road in case I can either help them or end their suffering but I wonder if I am just morbid, unusual or plain weird. Unfortunately my concious doesn't allow me to do otherwise.

Anyone else do anything similar?

I nearly had a huge Roe deer collide with my car last Sunday on the way to the yard when it shot out of the pub carpark and straight across my path and into some hedge at the side of the road. It got me thinking about how I would deal with a deer with a broken leg, or a half dead badger in need of PTS and i remember watching 'Wildlife SOS' on telly, so I have put a number of a RSPCA wildlife rescue into my mobile phone in case I should ever hit anything and not be able to deal with it myself. I would ask you all to do the same just in case such a thing ever happens to you.
 
I am exactly the same as you OP. I always study animals in the road as I go past to try and ensure they are definitely dead, if I had hit something myself I would 100% have to get out and check. It is morbid but in that situation I would feel responsible and could never let an animal suffer knowing there is something I could have done.

I just wish everyone could think in the same way but unfortunately they don't. I also came across a cat on the side of the road about two weeks ago and my husband and I immediately went over to check it, unfortunately it was frozen solid, I just hope it hadn't suffered. Cannot believe someone had hit it and just left it there. It breaks my heart to think of something lying in pain and I feel exactly the same about wild animals. I cry quite often seeing bodies on the road, thats just how I am.

As for the telephone number if you were to come across something half alive or to hit something yourself, I have been thinking about this too as I have quite recently moved to a much more rural area and see deer etc on a regular basis. Someone once told me you legally have to call the police if you hit a deer to report it (I am not sure if this is true?) but obviously you wouldn't call 999 so does that mean you have to try and find number of local police station to where you are, bearing in mind 9 times out of 10 in these locations there is no mobile phone signal.

And assuming they wouldn't deal with pts if necessary so who would you call? And my experience of calling RSPCA once before when I saw a little rabbit in the road needing attention I very much doubt they would come out quick enough, if at all to put something out of its misery?

A friend of mine said just call your local farmer and they can sort it out, but what if you are not near home?

I have the same questions as you OP and just pray that one day I am never in that situation.
 
Always deal with it whichever way is best. Same as you, have found cats which have been hit and left lying in the middle of the road dying. Would take to the vets if still alive or move off the road at least.

When i was younger we were heading home from a trip to Somerset. We took 3 cars as couldn't all fit in one and driving down a lane we had a herd of deer jump over the hedge onto the road literally on top of us. Unfortunately one did get hit by one of the cars in front and had a broken leg, we drove back to a farm we had just been past and the farmer came back to shoot the deer. Made a huge difference in time, rspca/vet etc would have taken ages to get there.
 
I would/will always stop; even as a kid I would scream and cry until my parents went back to check!

I was visiting my parents a little while ago and while we were driving along, a bird flew into our windscreen and shot across the road. Me and my mum immediately started crying and made my dad go back so we could put him at the side of the road in the flowerbed (he was dead). We are both very softy softy when it comes to things like that, but I hope anyone would stop if they hit something and was in any doubt that it was dead.

It doesn't make a jot of difference to me whether it be a rabbit or someone's loved pet. They're all animals with feelings and the ability to feel pain.
 
I stopped for a tawny owl which was sitting in the middle of a country road at dusk - many people drive too fast on that stretch and I don't like to think what would've happened if I hadn't picked him up. He looked very spaced out so I bundled him up in my coat and took him to my friends son (who works in wildlife rescue) - he took the owl to work and it turned out to be absolutely perfect by the time he got it there. They kept him overnight and did a test flight the next day which went really well, then I got a call asking if I wanted to release the owl that evening at dusk as near as possible to where I picked him up. Obviously I did! As a result I have some lovely pictures and a video of a gorgeous tawny owl being released into the wild :)
 
[QUOTE It doesn't make a jot of difference to me whether it be a rabbit or someone's loved pet. They're all animals with feelings and the ability to feel pain.[/QUOTE]

This definitely.

Meant to add as well I am exactly the same with mice / birds if my cats bring them near / in the house, I will always check them no matter how much it upsets me and either bring them in and let them get over the shock and then let them go if they are ok or do what needs to be done if suffering, as heartbreaking as it is. I've been known to cry for hours after having to put a mouse out of its misery, I just find it so upsetting. We have also been known to drive couple of hours round trip to the wildlife sanctuary on numerous occassions when getting home from work if we found a mildly injured bird the cats had bought in that we couldn't release
 
applecart14 said:
Sorry for morbid post but I am really just wondering how many of you would go back and check that the animal you ran over was dead or would you just drive on? If you hadn't run over it would you not feel responsible for checking on its wellbeing? Or would it depend if it was a domestic animal like a cat rather than something like a squirrel or rabit? Maybe you would be scared in case you saw something you would never forget or be able to deal with?

Yesterday afternoon I came across a cat that had just been hit and killed by a car lying in the road a couple of people standing next to it so I pulled over and asked them if they wanted me to take it to the vets to get it scanned to see if it had a chip so we could trace the owner. I got a dustbin liner out of my car and asked someone to lift it onto the dustbin liner for me (not very good dealing with lifting little dead bodies of animals) and put my finger tip on its eyeball to check any reaction. There was none so it was dead.

Someone said that they thought they knew who owner the cats, just a few doors down from where the cat lay so although I offered to go and break the news he kindly said that he would and then a chap came out of his house and said it was his and gathered it in his arms. His wife came out of the house and started screaming and sobbing when she found out it was their cat, it was very sad and upsetting and I really felt for them both. He said he had kids in the house and didn't want them to see the cat, I can imagine there was a lot of heartache in that house last night.

I've bought a little 'thinking of you' card that I am going to put through their letterbox later as I want them to know their cat didn't suffer any (a little white lie as I don't know if it did die outright as I didn't see it hit)

I always look if I see a small (non domestic) animal lying in the road, and try and see if its moving as I drive up to it. If I think it is and its obviously beyond help then i will drive over it so it doesn't suffer. I have often turned the car around and gone back to check on animals I have seen in the road in case I can either help them or end their suffering but I wonder if I am just morbid, unusual or plain weird. Unfortunately my concious doesn't allow me to do otherwise.

Anyone else do anything similar?

I nearly had a huge Roe deer collide with my car last Sunday on the way to the yard when it shot out of the pub carpark and straight across my path and into some hedge at the side of the road. It got me thinking about how I would deal with a deer with a broken leg, or a half dead badger in need of PTS and i remember watching 'Wildlife SOS' on telly, so I have put a number of a RSPCA wildlife rescue into my mobile phone in case I should ever hit anything and not be able to deal with it myself. I would ask you all to do the same just in case such a thing ever happens to you.
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I would always pick a cat off the road and take to vet, It breaks my heart seeing cats injured or worst, my little Kassie was killed two years ago, still hurts.


Wild life dead I would just pull off the road if its still movable.


Well done apple cart for doing such a kind thing, wish more like you.
 
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I've been known to cry for hours after having to put a mouse out of its misery, I just find it so upsetting.
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I would too! How do you do it?

I hope I'm never in a position where I have to, because I have no idea if I could bring myself to or how I'd do it.
 
It depends. If something is dead I do not worry about it. Unless it was me who ran it over and it was a domestic animal, then I would look for a tag on the collar with a phone number so I could tell the owners it was dead or injured. I would wait until they arrived if I was in no hurry but not if I was going to be late for something because it is not my fault they let their pet roam. I would not put anything in my car and take to a vet. I do not know any small animal vets not having any of those sort of pets myself, also I carry nothing in my car that is not necessary so would have nothing to put the animal on and I am not getting guts all over my car sorry or paying somebody else's vet bill. Domestic pets without tags or a collar I assume the owners are not that bothered about them if they let them roam without so would make no effort to find owner. Wildlife that is not dead I would move to the side on a pavement or by a bush. I am not sure how many times something needs to be run over before it dies but I have seen some creatures run over more than once and still alive so I would not do that. I have found police and RSPCA to be disinterested in partially dead pets or wildlife or even living wildlife or farm animals wandering about in the road. All this makes me sound mean but we all will die one day and not everyone goes peacefully in their sleep. I do care about all animals and would never intentionally hurt one but I do not take responsibility for animals unless I own them.
 
I will also check on an animal as I go past or on the couple of horrid occasions when I have struck an animal I have gone back to check.
On one occasion it was a rabbit who had run out between my front and back wheels and I more sensed than heard or felt it stroke the underside if the car. I knew the wheels hadn't gone over it so I went back to check and it was stunned. It wasn't moving but certainly appeared as though all limbs and bones were fine, just a mildly bloody paw.
So I decided the best thing to do was take it to a vet, I gathered it up but had nothing to put it in, however as it was stunned I thought it wouldn't be moving so I gently put him on the passenger seat (I was young and didnt think that logically it would have been better on the floor or in the boot) and off I went. Well I had gone about 3 miles when I heard 'Thud!' and looked at the seat to see no bunny and a couple of bloody paw prints. I stopped the car as he was now hopping about the footwell. At this point I realised that he was actually really rather well but didnt want to let him go somewhere he didnt know so I put him in the boot to contain him and drove him back to where I first struck him to let him out :-)

On a more sombre note, I used to work at a pet crematorium and you dont get used to the heartache that comes with the RTA's. We even had a nice Council near us that would respond to animals reported on the side of the road and would bring them to us. We would then have the job of trying to identify them (which really could be as awful as you imagine in both smell and visual) and find a microchip. If we could reunite them with an owner we would give them the choice of having their pet back or we would look after them (we only did 100% individual cremations for customers pets, and although I know places say that all the time, I can completely hand on heart promise that was the case here) If we couldnt find an owner, we would keep them on site (the only time an animal would ever be frozen by us) until we were certain there was no chance of an owner being found and then we would take care of them anyway and place their ashes in a special area set aside for the 'lost' ones.
We would also take care of hedgehogs from a local rescue and these also would all be placed in an area of the garden set aside especially for them.
 
Always always stop, have only hit one cat myself...........which actually was ok after a check at the vets thankfully! End of last year in a week i picked up two cats, one which belonged to the owners of our local farm shop who let their cats and kittens breed like mad, it was only tiny but was already dead and the other one was a wild cat that used to come over to our yard. I pulled out of our yard one day and saw him in the road. I still cannot believe they didn't stop!
 
I saw a wee cat lying on the road, pulled over and it was dead :( Went to the nearest house ( along a country lane) and asked the man who came to the door if he had a wee black cat. The look in his eyes made me instantly well up , he was distraught as we ran back towards my car to see if it was his. He scooped it up and tried to hide his tears taking it back to his garden. He told me the cats name, and a bit about his personality, and that the other cats and his wife will be so upset. I genuinely didnt know what to say or do, just went back to the car and had a good cry myself! Makes me well up writing about it! Poor wee mite.

I cant imagine how I would have felt if I had hit it! I could barely cope with just finding it!
 
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A few weeks ago I was driving down a country track alone and I saw a baby bunny in the middle of the track. I got out and it let me pick it up so it was obviously pretty poorly. It was snowing very badly and I wanted to take it home but I had 2 terriers loose in the car and it would have met a very grisly end. I was too much of a coward to run it over and had nothing to dispatch it with. So I had to leave it in the snow :( My only comfort is that it had hypothermia which is meant to feel sleepy and I hope it just drifted off.
 
I was going out on saturday night and had to stop and reverse back to check that a cat was dead! it was thankfully it was a bit of a mess, i also once had to put a deer in the boot of my car and take it to the vets to be PTS, everyone else was swerving round it - it was a pitch black road and you could only see it when nearly on top of it, the poor soul was sat up but its leg was shattered. I was a bit worried about everyones safety, but I guess the git that hit it just didn't care.
 
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mjcssjw2 said:
I was going out on saturday night and had to stop and reverse back to check that a cat was dead! it was thankfully it was a bit of a mess, i also once had to put a deer in the boot of my car and take it to the vets to be PTS, everyone else was swerving round it - it was a pitch black road and you could only see it when nearly on top of it, the poor soul was sat up but its leg was shattered. I was a bit worried about everyones safety, but I guess the git that hit it just didn't care.
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In those circumstances I do wish there was a phone number for someone who would come and put it out if its misery .
 
I think the police will sort it out - i took it to the police station and they called the vets - i thought that was better than it sitting in the road, possible getting whacked again - i also thought it maybe quicker as the police asked me to take it to the vets. Thankfully the vets was just around the corner, so it wasn't too long and it was it shock.
 
I once hit a deer (blummin thing jumped right out in front of my car instead of the other way into the forest when it heard me coming), and I'm most thankful I killed it outright rather than injuring it, as it was after 11pm at night, and I had absolutely nothing in my car to dispatch something as large as a deer.

Unfortuantely , due to living in a rural, but commuter belt, area, I'm all too used to seeing various wildlife and cats on the side of the road. April and October are horrendous, when kittens are just getting big enoug to start venturing away from the nest.
 
I have only ever ran over something once, it was a dog and I didn't go back to check. We were in the middle of nowhere in Botswana, rural Africa in a 4x4. It was 11pm and we were on the highway travelling at about 70mph. Suddenly two stray dogs ran out straight in front of the car. The first one got past by a whisker but we ploughed straight into the second at speed. It was awful. We think it was killed outright but we couldn't be certain. The reason we didn't go back was because there was nothing we could do if it was alive but severely injured. We couldn't risk handling an injured and frightened dog for the risk of rabies, and secondly, if it was badly injured what would we do? There was nowhere to take it as we were a three hour drive from the nearest town, which would have been unlikely to have a veterinary practice, and lastly I doubt I would have been able to deliberately drive over a large dog to put it out of its misery. I was sooo upset though. It was awful!
 
A few years ago I unfortunately drove over a swan, it was on a busy motorway with cars either side and the car in front drove over the poor thing first and I could just not avoid it or stop. I really hope he was killed quickly, as I felt horrible.

But there have been situations were we have found animals in trouble and have always tried to sort something out. When horse riding we found a sheep in the stream, who obviously could not get out and people were trying but couldn't either. We called the farmer we rented land from and he in turn told the owner of the sheep that there was a problem. (farmers seems to know who owns what) We have also found a cow stuck in a the mud, again called the farmer and helped him pull it out with a tractor. We also have pushed some sheep the right way around when they were laying on their backs and could not get up. I think the farmer we rented some land from was happy to have some people pay attention to his animals too.
 
I hit a black cat in a residential area once. I was only going about 30, probably slightly less as I was going uphill, and this little black cat ran straight out from behind a parked car - I didn't even see it, but my sister screamed and I naturally slammed my breaks on. I just saw it jump up from the road and shoot off in my rear view mirror, in that way animals do when they're full of adrenaline, but you could tell it was hurt. I ran after it but it had disappeared behind the houses and I couldn't find it. I was distraught; I knocked on several doors asking if they knew anybody who had a black cat and nobody knew. In the end I had to leave, I didn't know what else to do. I still hope now that it wasn't too badly injured and found its way home. I felt terrible.
 
Years ago I was driving to work in the winter at about 7am, so it was half dark and saw something struggling in the road. I stopped and saw that it was a cat which had been half run over - the back end was completely squashed but it was still alive and it was horrible. I was standing trying to think what to do for the best when a lorry came up and stopped to see if I was ok. I explained, he looked at the cat and then and there wrung it's neck, he then laid it on the verge. It was brutal to see but most definitely the quickest route out for the poor cat. We then took each side of the road (rural with only a few houses) and knocked on doors. We didn't find the owner but the driver left his card with a couple of people and explained what had happened. It was an awful moment, but I was so pleased the lorry driver had the courage and knowledge to put it out of its misery the quickest possible way. I was late for work, but they were thankfully sympathetic.

On another occasion a deer jumped across the road from a bank above and hit my car bonnet leaving a huge dent. When I got home I rang the Forestry Commission, they sent rangers out and thankfully found it - unfortunately it had broken a leg so it had to be put down, but I was glad they rang me back and let me know.

It's horrible when it happens, but I think if at all possible the least you can do is make sure the animal is checked and dealt with, one way or another.
 
SpringArising said:
I would too! How do you do it?

I hope I'm never in a position where I have to, because I have no idea if I could bring myself to or how I'd do it.
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If I'm honest I have never been able to bring myself to do it, my poor husband had to even though he cried too but he also would never let an animal suffer.

He put it in a little bag and under the car wheel and ran over it straight away, that way could pick up and put in outside bin, don't get me wrong I realise this is not a nice way to go, but he couldn't bring himself to stamp on it or squash with a brick or anything so at least this was quicker than it suffering for hours.

No idea what we'd do if it was something bigger, call my farmer if at home I suspect :-(
 
One of the most scary and upsetting things that has happened to me was hitting a cow. The poor thing was spooked by quad biker's illegally racing on the moors. The road is narrow and there was no way to avoid it. It smashed right into my 4x4 and came up through the windscreen. I suffered some minor cuts to my face from the poor thing thrashing about on my bonnet. I was very grateful to the lad I was with for using his sheep knife to slit its throat and ends its suffering. The policeman who arrived pretty quickly after said if I had been driving fast or in a smaller car we would probably all have been killed. Very scary and awful thing to witness. Annoyingly the kids on quads were long gone, they saw what happened and drove off without even checking if we were all right.
 
I too check any dead/injured animal I see on the road. I have saved countless birds and squirrels and a cat. I got my son to pick up a cat near our house recently in case it was ours as the markings were identical, it wasn't ours but we put a notice up after having it checked for a microchip and then buried it.

I will pick up worms off the pavement on a rainy day and take them to safety so there is no way I can pass any animal in the road.
 
We came across an apparently dead badger in the middle of the road late one night, I couldn't bear the thought of others cars hitting it, so I got my then OH to get out and put it on the grass verge, he said it couldn't have been hit that long ago as it was still warm. Carried on our journey but coming home a couple of hours later there was no sign of said badger, OH even got out and had a scout round but nope it had definately gone! We could only assume that it had only been stunned/knocked unconcious and had come round and wandered off! If that was the case OH was glad it hadn't come round when he moved it!
 
Like most people in rural areas I have hit a number of animals over the years, rabbits mainly, a squirrel and once a female phesaent , that was the worst one because her mate came out and sat next to her cheeping.....I felt terrible. I always stop and check, except for the once when I was doing an emergency vet run. The speed I hit it...it was dead! I would stop for any animal that looked alive, I would stop to check any domestic animal. Last year I saw a neighbours cat very dead on the road. I was able to contact the husband so he could remove the cat before his wife and grandchild came home and saw her.
The most bizarre one I saw was a load of sqaushed pigeons on the road, I thought how strange, they were all dead so I drove to the yard. On the way home, coming the other way I could see a line of pigeons sat on the road side. I stopped and counted at least ten young pigeons, there were at least that many dead. I could not leave them there to die like the ones that had already been killed. They looked like racing birds, so I picked them up and popped them in my boot. They were babies, still flightless and had been dumped. I took them to my Dad, it was really funny opening my boot and hearing all the coos. They were really nice looking birds. Dad found a home for them with a man who had just lost his flock, he said they would have been stolen, the best birds picked out, the rest dumped to die, his cruel. This all had a nice life with an lovely elderly man, who had just lost his flock through bad luck and had thought he would not have birds again. He had only just finished cleaning and disinfecting his pen!
 
A few years ago now I drove up our (country) road in the dark on the way to take an evening class (I'm a post compulsory lecturer).

Going past some houses just up the road from us, a ginger & white cat just pounced out in front of me from the hedge, completely unexpectedly. There was nothing I could do, absolutely nothing. There was this awful "crunch" and a lot of ginger & white hairs flying up in the air, and as soon as I'd got out the car I could tell the cat was dead, and there was nothing anyone could have done for it. I went to the nearby house, it was awful because I knew the people there, and had to say look I'm really sorry but I've just killed your cat. It was awful, just tragic, and I just felt so bad, but fortunately they were OK about it. THEN of course I had to drive on to my evening class to stand up in front of people and hold it all together as if nothing had happened. That was honestly the hardest class I've ever had to take :(

The same thing happened to us here last summer. We had two cats from the same litter, and I was just in our yard talking to the builder, and hadn't even noticed the car go past, when suddenly little cat came somersaulting into the yard, then went round and round like she was having a fit and then went under the builder's van, then just lay there, poor little puss I could see she was as dead as dead, but at least it was quick and she'll never have known what had happened to her. The car driver came in, it was awful for her, she was just devastated :(

Awful, awful, awful.
 
I have never hit anything and I really hope I never do! So I can't say what I would do.

That said, I did see a hedgehog in the road and slammed the breaks on (quiet road at midnight, nothing was behind me). I got out and I couldn't see anything. I checked all over my car, under the wheels, in the hedges, up and down the road, but I couldn't see a thing! There was no blood, so I can only assume I missed it.

I have seen a cat get run over, the awful man didn't stop and he obviously didn't care! The poor thing almost made it, but it's hind end got caught under the wheel. It ran off and we couldn't catch it. I knew where it came from and we went and told them, it never came back so I can only assume it went and died somewhere :( I still think about it often and it's why I am dubious about letting Chilli go out for too long or too far away!
 
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