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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be upset at DH for killing a pheasant?

108 replies

MrsSatsuma · 18/09/2011 21:19

Driving along a country road we came across a group of pheasants. DH beeped the horn and slowed down a bit but when they didn't move he just kept driving and hit one. His reaction was 'oops'.

Now I know they are probably the UK's most stupid birds but I was shocked he didn't try harder to avoid it, which he could easily have done without putting any human life at risk. He could have slowed down much more than he did and beeped again and they would probably have moved! I was so upset I burst into tears - upset because of the poor little thing (to which he replied 'it's only a bird) but also because of what I thought was a very callous reaction.

AIBU to have got so upset with him?

OP posts:
LoveInAColdClimate · 18/09/2011 21:42

YABU if you didn't take it home to eat!

DartsRus · 18/09/2011 21:43

I once drove to work down a back country lane, while it was still reasonably dark. I came upon a flock of stupid partridge just sitting in the middle of the road. No beeping, light flashing would get them to move, and I stopped, and got out to herd them all away, with the drivers of the cars behind not bothering to conceal their sniggers (road not wide enough to overtake).

I have managed to hit 3 pheasants and two rabbits so far (one rabbit wreaking the radiator). I am sorry they are dead, but I could not avoid them. Swerving would have put me into the line of traffic on the other side of the road.

discobeaver · 18/09/2011 21:47

Logically, if you eat meat, then it's daft to get upset over a bird being killed.
Do you cry over the chickens at Sainsbury's, or the cuts of steak?
If you are veggie, then it makes more sense.

I eat meat, but I still would have felt the same as you about running a creature over, just shows how removed we are from the stuff we eat, really.

CrackerFactory · 18/09/2011 21:50

YANBU I would feel exactly the same.

LaurieFairyCake · 18/09/2011 21:51

Slowing down because you're aware there are wildlife in the area is not illegal.

I had the utter bliss of some twat overtake me on a country road to plough into a herd of deer (killing 2 :( ) but righting off his car.

It is fucking obvious with all the deer signs that it's possible and it is a 40. I reckon he was doing 60/70.

LadyFlumpalot · 18/09/2011 21:52

My stepdad hit an owl once on his motorbike (rather, the owl hit him as it flew out the hedge and collided with his head)! It gave my stepdad concussion!

Also, once I was waiting at the lights to cross and when they changed a van was stopped at the front of the que. It had obviously just hit a bird as there were actual dripping guts and innards wedged into the front grill.

LEMONAIDE · 18/09/2011 21:53

Well Spring and Autumn the pheasants are a nightmare on country roads, it almost feels as it they wait to run out in front of you they are truly stupid birds. I hate to say it but the first 20 or so times you try your hardest to avoid them but after a while, if you travel on back roads every day, you get a bit "fffs not again"

LEMONAIDE · 18/09/2011 21:54

I would be totally gutted about an owl though.

mayorquimby · 18/09/2011 21:54

nah he should break suddenly and cause an accident.
leave him

LadyFlumpalot · 18/09/2011 21:56

Lemonaide - The owl was fine, a bit stunned but apparently it just flapped about for a few minutes, gave itself a shake and flew off quite merrily.

backwardpossom · 18/09/2011 21:59

Slowing down because you're aware there are wildlife in the area is not illegal.

Of course it's not. I'm pretty sure stopping suddenly is though (and if it's not, it's still a ridiculously stupid thing to do if there is traffic behind you), and I suspect that's what the OP wanted her DH to do.

MumbaiMamma · 18/09/2011 22:00

YANBU at all!

Don't blame the pheasants, blame the bastards who breed them to shoot them! Pheasants are not wild birds. They (around 35 million each year) are bred intensively in cramped battery conditions, and then released to be shot. Angry They have no concept of how to deal with a road.

It's unforgiveable to kill a bird when it's avoidable.

Maryz · 18/09/2011 22:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Vallhala · 18/09/2011 22:06

Sadly they are pretty stupid. Around where I live they are close to tame, hardly moving even at the sight and sound of me and my 3 large dogs. The bastard shooting fraternity are out there each October, standing around a small group of trees in the middle of a field, the trees barely 16 deep or wide, shooting in groups of a dozen or more.

Sport? I don't think so!

But I digress... there's enough cruelty going on without the driver unnecessarily causing more.

HarrietSchulenberg · 18/09/2011 22:07

I have seen the same effing pheasant wander about in front of my car every night for over a week now. As it's quiet I brake and drive round it (yes, I do make sure the road is clear), but if everyone else on that road is doing the same thing then that bird is one accident waiting to happen. I feel rather obliged to avoid it as I always have the children in the car when I see it and 2 of them still haven't forgotten what's become known as The Fox Incident of 7 years ago.

It'll be interesting to see if it's still there tomorrow, though ...

zookeeper · 18/09/2011 22:09

YANBU. Seems a mean thing to do.

CrackerFactory · 18/09/2011 22:12

I also think whether you are vegetarian or not is utterly irrelevant to this discussion. If you eat meat does that give you carte blanche to disrespect life and just plough it down.

I do agree you have to measure the risk when driving as swerving and/or stopping can be dangerous. But the OP made it clear it was safe to prevent this. But it is probably more her dh's attitude that upset her. I unavoidably hit a pheasant on the moterway and I felt bad about it. That is probably what she wanted from her dh to feel sad about it.

nenevomito · 18/09/2011 22:15

I lived for ages on a farm that had pheasants for the shooting season. They weren't bred in cages, they lived wild in the woods and in the grass land. There were masses of them all over the farm from chicks in spring to adults n the autumn. They were the most stupid birds I have ever come across who loved nothing more than hanging out on the drive between the farm and the main track.

We named all of the ones in our garden based on their personalities. they were called Stupid, I'm with stupid, stupid: son of stupid. You get the idea.

Sometimes the inevitable happend and one got squashed. Its bloody hard work not to hit a creature that sees something coming towards it, veers off to the side and then back under your wheels.

From experience they don't move when you beep them, but if you hit one at speed they shift pretty quickly.

They are also delicious.

AnnaBegins · 18/09/2011 22:17

YABU, pheasants have been bred to fly/run in one direction to make them easy to shoot (strange but true!) so they are too stupid to swerve out of the way of the car. At this time of year there are hundreds of them, I hit one on Friday, it's almost impossible not to (I did brake, although I know technically I shouldn't if there's a car behind). Don't give him such a hard time, it was an accident!

Vallhala · 18/09/2011 22:25

It wasn't a fricking accident, from what the OP says, anna, it was deliberate! Shock

Dawndonna · 18/09/2011 22:28

I live in the middle of nowhere. Pheasants are everywhere, they're all stupid and all have a deathwish.
Sorry, but where we are it's a fact of life/roadkill.

MuthaInsuperior · 18/09/2011 22:29

I would be pissed off that he killed an animal for the sake of it.

pinkytheshrinky · 18/09/2011 22:30

You are unreasonable, the priority is the people in the car not the animal/bird in the road. I have killed countless birds and stuff because sudden braking on country roads or swerving for that matter is really not the thing. It is just a bloody bird.

ColdSancerre · 18/09/2011 22:34

YANBU no excuse to not try to avoid hitting it. And his reaction after he did so is questionable.

AhsataN · 18/09/2011 22:36

can i just say they are not bred in cramped conditions they have nesting boxes in open pens so they can breed and when they are strong enough they can fly straight out living in woodland living off crops that are planted for them to eat.
the pens are open topped in the middle of woodland and the only reason they are in a a pen is to stop foxes killing the young that cant fly.
the pheasants that are bred like this are bred for shooting and all meat is eaten! id say much nicer than a battery chicken living in a crappy barn then being killed.