To find roadkill so upsetting?

[Wickerwillow]

We live in a semi-rural location (think village, but a short drive to some major towns). Every day on my commute to work I drive past fresh corpses at the side of the road belonging to some of the most exquisite animals.

Absolutely beautiful deer with their large, dark eyes who've taken an ill-timed chance to cross the road. Yesterday a bushy-tailed fox, the most perfect colour of burnt-amber just cast to one side and left to rot away in the mud. The other day I even saw an otter! My first sighting of a wild otter in quite a few years and it had already lost it's life to a car :(

I've always been an animal lover so I take the decline of our wildlife to heart and admit perhaps I am a little more sentimental about it than most. But does anyone else feel so sad to see such casual loss-of-life on a daily basis? I can't help but feel it we took more efforts to avoid building major roads across the natural habitats of these beautiful animals the death-toll could be much improved. Then there's our treatment of others animals. Travellers putting their working horses in traps and forcing them to go full pelt down the duel carriageway on a Sunday with cars whizzing past (we see this regularly where I live. It makes me furious). Animal tourism. Donkeys and mules being forced to carry lazy tourists up hillsides in Greece to sightsee.

Sometimes I feel like humans are the only ugly creatures on this planet.

Betty, I'm 30-40 minutes (depending on traffic) drive from Tiggywinkles, the famous rescue centre so that is a factor for me... knowing that they have a no kill policy on so called 'vermin' , which is why people take rats, squirrels, pigeons there (obviously they do euthanise if necessary) I used to work at a vets that had the same ethics/ policy (even if probably weren't allowed to do so) so that's definitely influenced me. But mainly it's that I can't bear any suffering. I'm not a fluffy person. I'll 'happily' turn over a heavy deer in the rain and mud to check for pulse and find that the underside of it is.. well,, not something you'd want to touch, as happened last week. My cat brought in a dead squirrel the other day (road kill I think) and left it under the bed, stunk the whole house out. So I'm not squeamish. And I live where there used to be pheasant shooting on my estate, and where locally people hunt. But I'm also lucky enough to be surrounded by badgers,woodpeckers, foxes, deer, owls - at night, cat and I go out to see them most nights (he hangs out with them!). The best was in summer when we were surrounded by 15 badgers, all ignoring us! We just sat and watched them eating roots in the field. In the heat we left out bowls of water daily at all our local setts. The wildlife here is such a big part of our lives and I can't just ignore what's going on on the roads, thanks to the speeding drivers

Yanbu. Hedgehogs break my heart. They are fast declining too, so sad.

As part of my business I drive round rural and semi -rural lanes and roads daily.Some days the amount of roadkill almost overwhelms me.And I regularly stop and check to make sure they are actually dead and to move them off the road as I can't bear on my return journey to see their mutilated bodies.I've never come across a dead deer,several have jumped across the road but in most cases if yuo are driving responsibly you should be able to react.And I could never drive on if I hit any animal.But far too many hedgehogs and badgers sadly.And any cats I wrap up in a towel and take to the vets so they can scan them.As a cat owner myself I would at least like to know what had happened to them.
It absolutely sickens me how people can just drive over them knowingly.And I'm also shocked by the lack of care and respect some drivers show towards horses and riders on the road.Is any journey so important that they can slow down for just a few minutes and give them some space?

YANBU.

Unless you count insects, I have never hit anything. This is despite living rurally and driving quite a lot for a good number of years, including at night.

I do drive carefully, but at a normal speed. I'm not driving along at 5mph with someone walking in front waving a flag.

Some very close shaves with cats, dogs, stags, badgers, foxes, hares, rabbits, hedgehogs, squirrels, stoats, rats and weasels, and all manner of birds, including owls, ducks and pheasants, but somehow we've always managed to miss colliding with eachother.

Who is hitting all these creatures, and why? Have I just been lucky so far?

Yes alltoomuchrightnow it must be a relief to know the rescue centre is not too far away though I think you go above and beyond what many people would do so you should be commended for that, we have a local vets who take in injured wildlife which I have had to call upon for their services, the last one was a blackbird who’s wing was broken, sadly he could not be saved so they put him to sleep, at least a cat did not get him and he had a peaceful end

I completely agree with you OP, wild animals are beautiful and we destroy their habitat, abuse them with factory farming etc

Humans are the only ugly ones, some of them much more then others. Wish we would prioritise their welfare more, enable laws that help promote less suffering.

Hopefully with social media, more people are becoming aware of things that happen behind the scene in all aspects of animal welfare and that can only promote change I hope?

People speed like crazy on the nearest country lane , had a few human fatalities, so wildlife doesn't stand a chance :( And at night they rush towards headlights that are on full beam.. it confuses them... this is why I never have them on full now. I live on a private country estate and that's meant to be 5 mph. And creatures still get hit as people speed even with speed bumps. A lot of the squirrels are on suicide missions though... they just rush out. I'm always doing emergency stops.

DP once hit a badger and he was not speeding. Sadly it happens. It broke my heart. Somehow it ran off and we went to look for it but could not find. Yes I go the extra because they have no voice; who else is going to help them? I'm always having to nip in the middle of the night to Tiggys, thank goodness they are 24 hours. I just cannot bear to see someone dying an awful death on the roadside because someone couldn't be bothered to stop. I realise that is my choice. Too many find it easy to hit, drive off and forget, out of sight out of mind. Us who live here have to see the creatures suffer. So I see it as a part of living rurally, to do what I can

Oh man, hitting and killing a wild animal is awful ! But do you not think there’s a lot of abuse going on with pets?
You only have to read a little bit of MN to see that there’s a lot of people out there who have no respect or education regarding the animals they are responsible for

I get you 100%. I am terrible... I see alot where I live (Aus) and it makes me upset every single time. Ive lost count of the amount if times Iv6e pulled over to collect something injured like natives birds to drop off at the local animal hospital! It really is sad... I then feel cross that us humans cause so much carnage on the roads whizzing about in our cars killing things, when the poor animals are just trying to go about their business (likely unreasonable but I get abit emotional over it) had to call Fauna Rescue over the weekend to have them 'deal with' a poor roo who had severly broken its leg.. likely from a car hit. Knew that it ended the suffering but I still shed a tear

The last time I had to do an emergency stop was for a stag. We stared at eachother through the windscreen for what felt like an eternity. I'm not sure who was watching who. It felt like he was looking right into my soul, if that's not too much of a 3am thing to say! Afterwards he strode off majestically down to the river for a drink. Despite hitting my wrist hard on the steering wheel and jarring my neck as I stopped, I felt extremely lucky to have had that encounter and not to have hit him. I don't think I'll ever forget being weighed up by those eyes. Sometimes a whole herd run across the road, seemingly coming out of nowhere. It's quite a sight. I wind the window down to watch and listen to them.

@BlackBeltInPresentWrapping

You probably have just been lucky. No one is going to hit an animal if they can avoid (even if it’s just to protect the car). Here in Texas a lot of deer are almost frustratingly dim as they tend to run towards cars, there are even plenty of cases of deer running into cars rather than the other way round. Thankfully it’s pretty much good to hit a deer here and the hunting of them that also goes on is essential as the populations are so huge that otherwise thousands would just starve.

I’ve never hit anything but my husband hit an armadillo while I was in the car and it was honestly impossible to avoid. By the time I managed to shout “oh look” as it was the first armadillo we’d seen we’d already hit it. I think most animals are definitely killed at night. There was however a raccoon that had been hit by a few cars in front and was almost dead but still alive (terrible wounds that would have meant it would live for roughly 10 minutes) and we did purposely hit it to put it out of its misery. Many carry a gun in their truck for that purpose if they live rurally, especially with all the deer.

I think their may also be a slightly different culture around it back in England. Animals are a much more rare sight so there definitely is more of a sense of tragedy. Here I pass more than 5 instances of roadkill on the way to work each day, about half of which are deer. It just becomes a fact of life, and the buzzards need to eat too, which is much harder for them otherwise. Really here it’s more of a case of getting a deer guard to protect the front of your truck at a certain point, it’s going to happen to everyone at least once. Same as most of the time if you know you’re going to hit an armadillo either way then you speed up, otherwise their defense response is to jump, which means you may end up the one dead as it flies through your windshield. I found it harsh at first as I even slow for pigeons and the occasional butterfly but here it’s a genuine road hazard.

@alltoomuchrightnow and @Snugglepiggy
I don't live in an area with this problem but I feel heartened that people like you exist that go the extra mile for these poor animals.

I think I love @alltoomuchrightnow. Not in a weird way. I despair at the cruelty of the human race and people like you give me hope

Also @ Snugglepiggy. Thank you

It gives me hope @Toecleavage that OK cares enough to start this thread and all the responses show others do care. We've destroyed natural habitats of beautiful wild creatures at home,and as David Attenborough's Dynasties series has shown on wordwide onan epic scale ,and it just makes my heart sore.But some incredible people work in conservation.As do people who deal with child cruelty etc.Exposing themselves to the worst sides of humanity.
And yes social media helps the groundswell of people to say I care about this.However I was sickened to read that now with technology badger baiting is increasing because the sick bastards are filming it and using footage live for betting.Who are these monsters ?
You'd go mad thinking about it.But just hope the majority do care enough to take more care,slow down and afford an animal some compassion.

Sorry typo !Meant Wickerwillow OP .Thank you for the thread.

I don't like roadkill either. Saw a swan on the grass verge yesterday. I have only ever hit a pheasant and a small rabbit. Both times because someone was tailgating me so braking would have been dangerous. The other week I had a deer, a game bird and another one I can't remember all run out in front of me at separate times on one journey. Didn't hit any of them.

‘Tis sad but it shows the animals are out there. Don’t see them normally. Never seen a wild live badger or otter.

had to call Fauna Rescue over the weekend to have them 'deal with' a poor roo who had severly broken its leg.. likely from a car hit.

You are lucky that services like this now exist. When I was young, so 50 odd years ago, it was diy. I remember many times both grandfathers and my own father getting out and dealing with an injured roo. Basically, it was find the nearest large rock. As kids we were always taught it was the kindest thing. No mobile phones back then and absolutely no way a vet would have travelled for injured wildlife and no wildlife services like now.

If you are hit by a roo though chances are you won’t be in a state to do anything with it anyway, they write off cars. You just need to hope the beggars don’t go through the windscreen.

We do have massive stretches of freeway, especially heading north on the East Coast, that have wildlife fencing including aerial crossing ropes for possums and the like.

Most disgusting thing I have seen on the roadside was a HUGE bush pig. Saddest thing was a koala. Seen masses of roos, possums, foxes, dingos and birds. Honestly, I’m quite meh with all of those. Not seen that many snakes surprisingly and weirdly just that one koala. That was hard to understand, the poor thing was killed on a remote stretch where you were lucky to pass one other car every few hours and even if it was dark it’s not like they are quick movers that you couldn’t avoid and it was obviously coming from bush side with plenty of verge onto the road so no idea how someone couldn’t avoid it.

If you do see 'unusual' animals as roadkill, please please make a report of the sighting - ideally to your local Records Centre or Wildlife Trust, or if it is a hedgehog, also via hedgehogstreet.org.
As previous posters have pointed out, often road kill is the only way we ever see these animals, and especially for things like otters it provides a valuable chance to find out more about them, and crucial evidence for things like underpasses on new roads.
Our county Mammal Group will come out and collect carcasses and they are very valuable for learning more about our wildlife.
Same goes for dead marine animals & birds - please report any sightings to the Marine Strandings network. www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-advice/marine-sightings-strandings

Increasing our knowledge and understanding of wildlife is one way to get a positive outcome from a sad occurrence.

It really upsets me too :(

What I can’t fathom though, is just how MANY I see sometimes. Sure, some of the animals like to make a poorly timed dash across the road, but I have never once failed to stop. Even at 4am when a fox darted in front of my car at the last second, I managed to stop.

It makes me realise how little attention some drivers must pay to the road :(