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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be appalled by the

62 replies

MummyBerryJuice · 21/07/2010 17:18

blatant disregard for life shown by a blooming tourist to our village?

We live in a beautiful rural village that is over run by tourists in the summer as a popular soap used to be filmed here. I was stuck behind one of these tourists doing about 10mph while driving home from our local 'metropolis' when a pheasant ran out into the road.

The idiot slowed and then proceeded to just drive right over the pheasant.I it would probably have been killed anyway come hunting season but I couldn't help but feel a little sick.

So AIBU?

OP posts:
southeastastra · 21/07/2010 17:19

oops maybe they thought they'd missed it! seemed strange to slow down just to run over it

scurryfunge · 21/07/2010 17:19

Survival of the fittest I'm afraid....why wouldn't a local have done the same?

BeerTricksPotter · 21/07/2010 17:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

EvilTwins · 21/07/2010 17:22

I would be willing to bet a local would have done the same. Slowed down to save it damaging the car (I've seen the damage a pheasant can do to a car if its hit at high speed)

Sassybeast · 21/07/2010 17:22

How do you know it was a tourist ? Your village sounds like quite a scary place if you can identify a tourist in a moving car. Do you have a secret police type thing going on ?

Undertone · 21/07/2010 17:23

I hate, hate, hate when wildlife gets needlessly killed on the roads. But it's actually illegal to swerve for anything smaller than a deer/large dog - you could be putting the surrounding traffic in danger if you suddenly veer off to one side, and the driver may also then lose control of their vehicle.

My mum got a ticking off for evading a suicidal squirrel in front of Plod.

Limara · 21/07/2010 17:23

Seems strange the pheasant didn't move quicker, maybe ill? If this was the case then it may have died tonight at the hands of a fox anyway? Trying to make you feel better

Rockbird · 21/07/2010 17:23

So the 'tourist' was doing about 10mph and ran over the pheasant? In that case, stupid pheasant. Maybe it was tired of life, maybe it didn't want the beautiful rural hoi polloi taking pot shots at it.

This would also be the tourism that brings money to your beautiful rural village?

And before anyone jumps, because people on here always do, no that doesn't mean a child standing in front of a car doing 10mph deserves to be run over...

ChickensHaveNoEyebrows · 21/07/2010 17:25

Maybe the tourist meant to kill the pheasant, so they could eat it. Pheasants are extremely stupid.

ArseHolio · 21/07/2010 17:29

You should try living in Oxford !

Tourists ram native human beings out of the way there.

Original poster
MummyBerryJuice · 21/07/2010 17:29

Only tourists drive at 10mph

OP posts:
sethstarkaddersmum · 21/07/2010 17:29

if you're a proper country person I imagine your problem is with the tourist actually driving over the pheasant and thus mangling it and rendering it unfit for consumption, as opposed to knocking it out then carefully reversing, leaving it intact for the next person to come along, wring its neck and take it home and eat it

Original poster
MummyBerryJuice · 21/07/2010 17:30

ArseHolio they do here too!!

OP posts:
LolaKnickers · 21/07/2010 17:30

it is annoying, but then I am presuming that tourism brings income to businesses, generates employment, means people open nice facilities that locals can use too etc etc

mayorquimby · 21/07/2010 17:31

right thing to do, wouldn't risk braking suddenly for a pheasent.

LadyPeterWimsey · 21/07/2010 17:32

I ran over a pheasant the other day

It hopped on to the road, saw the car in front of me, hopped back, and then threw itself in front of my car. It was truly a pheasant with a death wish and the was nothing I could do.

Agree with ChickensHaveNoEyebrows (who sounds like she should know ) - they are not clever creatures.

LolaKnickers · 21/07/2010 17:33

ladypeter - I hope you took it home for supper

LadyPeterWimsey · 21/07/2010 17:35

Lola - I'm a former vegetarian, and pretty squeamish about how my meat arrives, and we were horrifically late for something, so I didn't. But I know I should have!

katiestar · 21/07/2010 17:41

Pheasants are the most stupid creatures on the face of the earth.They wait until a car comes and then dart into the road in front of it.
I bet they cause lots of accidents when people brake suddenly
What letter does this village begin with OP?

Original poster
MummyBerryJuice · 21/07/2010 17:42

It was well and truly mangled beyond recognition otherwise I would have bought it home for dinner

OP posts:
ChickensHaveNoEyebrows · 21/07/2010 17:43

Mangled pheasant doesn't look so elegant on the dining table

Original poster
MummyBerryJuice · 21/07/2010 17:48

Too true. Although my mum used to serve 'roadkill pie' when we were little, but I think she just called it that to make the chicken pie more exciting

OP posts:
LadyBiscuit · 21/07/2010 18:13

I ran over one once but didn't kill it so I had to break its neck with my bare hands

darkandstormy · 21/07/2010 18:30

OP You are not being unreasonable, some people do not have any respect for life, except their own of course,makes me sick tbh.We once hit a pheasant which ran in front of us, we did not even see it till it was on top of us, I was so upset though,and could not sleep that night for thinking about the poor thing

JaneS · 21/07/2010 19:13

YABU. Pheasants are incredibly stupid. Most other birds will be slow to get out of the way, but they will go. Pheasants are just too dumb. She couldn't have known that if she'd not been in the situation before.