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If a school bus driver is picking up children in your dog friendly neighborhood and he sees you outside with your pet who is crossing the road to return home...the driver accellerates to hit the animal...what charges can the pet owner take?
As a cdl holder, the driver should be reported. If the bus driver intentionally hits the animal, h/she should be charged with a preventable accident and receive points affecting CSA.
RIGHT? And,
Should driver also be subject to lawsuit?
BS bs bs. gun power under you car... bs bs bs...
Just what this is a story...
Quote:
Originally Posted by gizmo980
Another story...
P.S. A few days later I went to have my car washed, and they asked why there was gunpowder all over the underside... was tempted to tell them some crazy story, like "I got caught in the middle of a gang fight." That wouldn't have been hard to believe, considering the neighborhood I lived in at the time.
One was a kamikaze blue jay that dive-bombed me before I could even begin to lift my foot off the throttle or tweak the wheel. It hit the left front of my car with a "phhht" and all I could see in the mirror was a blue puff of feathers like that pigeon that got in the way of a Randy Johnson fastball.
The other was a suicidal squirrel that ran in front of me on the highway. If he'd have kept running, he'd have made it across with no problem. But instead, he stopped in the middle of my lane and started doing the Teaberry Shuffle, almost leading me to lose control in a pilot-induced-oscillation in an effort to miss him until I straightened it out and tried to straddle him. At the last second, he made a break for the shoulder of the road, I heard a "tock" from under the car, and looked in the mirror to see him stretched out at full length, doing a series of 360's as he spun off the road, clearly dead.
Nothing to do in either case other than just keep going and feel bad about hitting an animal that I couldn't avoid.
A wiled animal if I can't dispatch it I'll call the authorities.
For a domestic that is not killed out right, take it for care, call a vet, (it's hard to transport a injured horse.) Then try to find the owner.
For a dead domestic, I find the owner and tell them.
For a dead wiled animal, drag it to the ditch.
I hit 3 deer at once last winter with my plow, 2 ran off one injured and flopping around. The next car that came along stopped we talked , then they threw it in their trunk and took it home for food.
as a once vet tech and widlife rehabber...its a tough situation.
i feel for the most part im ualifie to be able to look at the aftermath nd decide if moving the animal is afepossible/worthwhile.
first off it realy depends, if im driving down the highway at 65 an theres a good traffoc flow and hit a squirrel...im not going to be able to safely slam on my break and pull over to check onpoor mr nutty.
but if its safe i will pull over.
check the animal, if its a wild animal responce will realy depend on what your area has available there is NOT animal control in my county and as of yet ive been unable to fin any licensed rehabbers...
if the animal looks on deaths door i will finihs it if at all possible in as humane a way as possible (generally snapping the neck if you dont have acess to gun is the most humane way...if its too large an animal then something VERY VERY heavy to the head (again a gun IS preferable, a shot point blank between the eyes) and then remove the hazard from the road again if possible. (if not call your local dept of road maintenence to tell them theres a haard in the road.
if the animal is "just" wounded and i can safely transport it i will get it vet care and rehab myself...if the animal is capbale of walking, i do NOTHING other than attempt to usher it off the road. while it should get vet care it is NEVER safe to attempt to handle an injured wild animal that can move under its own power....
for a domeastic animal same rules apply but ill generally call the sherrif first...
but again we have NO animal control in my area, so its generally left up to the person invoved and the sherrif to decide the next course.
in terms of an injured/dead pet ill then put a listing on craigslist, local facebook pages ect saying which vet (or where it was hit).
now if your in an area with animal control CALL THEM FIRST...
wild animals (and domestics) can carry all kinds of nasties, and ANY injured animal is scared in pain and CAN BITE...
(post exposure rabies shots arnt fun!) call animal control (or the sherrifs dept) let them know what happens and see what they say. if an animal is obviously not goin to make it (ie head pretty much gone) an you feel capable of finnishing it off again, breaking the neck or a bullet to the head are generally the 2 most humane ways.
Meanwhile back on planet Earth.... NO wildlife agency is going to come out if you've just clipped Fido or Fluffy. Nor should they quite frankly, it's not their remit.
a) the "correct" answer to this all depends on where it happens - if you're in an urban or suburban area, fine. You can call law enforcement, you can get to a vet, you can do any number of things. If you're either traveling somewhere you're not familiar with (ie, a scenic area) or in a very rural area (where one is more likely to hit wildlife, just statistically speaking), you're faced with a whole different set of criteria.
b) as the OP stated, if you're on a back road in the arse end of nowhere, things are rather different. There's a huge and vast difference between hitting a deer, a raccoon, or even a wild hog - and clipping Fido on a street with a 35 mph speed limit. There's just no way what is practical, or indeed morally responsible, to do in one instance is the same in the other instance.
OP - deer are tricky and you're lucky you weren't injured. The statistics (easily available but it's too late and I can't be bothered) of the number of humans killed every year by a deer through the windscreen is quite phenomenal. With deer - if the deer moves off, the deer moves off and it probably will survive. If the deer is unable to move off &/or tries to get up and can't (deer necks are easily broken), is seriously visibly injured then the kindest, most human thing you can do is shoot it. If you don't happen to have a firearm about your person, call someone who does. If you're in an area with no phone reception... well, that's between you and your conscious but the fact of the matter remains that you are trying to put the animal out of its misery as quickly as possible.
So while the OP poses the question about running over an animal a second time and is lambasted for it... well, that's all very well and good for town-folk. However, in great swaths of emptiness, things aren't quite so clear cut. According to what's been written here, the animal should be left to suffer for... some indistinct period of time (assuming there is a way of contacting someone, which is a great big, fat assumption) because to aim a motor vehicle at some sort of injured/dying animal a second time is just a bit distasteful? Not in my book - if you haven't got a gun and the animal is seriously injured then you do what it takes to put the animal out of its misery.
I live in a rural area of Idaho. I have NO idea who, if anyone, that rehabs wild animals, certainly not late at night. Vets offices in town close at 5 pm. If you call the police or Fish and Game, they come out in their own good time and shoot the animal, period. You cannot take ANY wild animal and "scoop" it up and put it in your car unless you have a deathwish. They are called WILD animals for a reason.
The best thing to do is be prepared before an incident. I carry a rope leash, treats, thick gloves, and a small carrier in my car at all times. This way if I should hit an animal or come across a stray, I'm ready and can safely help. I've had to use this equipment many times in the past, though I've been lucky so far and have never hit an animal myself.
I will ALWAYS stop for wildlife and pets provided it is safe to do so. I've pulled everything from large snakes to fox pups off the road. Granted, I'm not likely to load something like an injured bobcat into my car, but I would do everything possible to get help for the animal.
I've also assisted in several roadside euthanasias of deer at the request of the police. Around here they won't shoot a deer unless they have absolutely no choice because of the paperwork involved and safety issues. So sometimes I'd be asked to assist a vet in euthanizing wildlife (which is how I know that it's actually really, really difficult to euthanize a turtle.) That's also how I ended up driving an injured hawk to the local wildlife rehab (unfortunately she did not survive.)
As for running over an animal again...I actually don't think this is the absolute worst thing. I would never do that for a domestic animal. An injury can look very severe and still be survivable, and I would be enraged if someone made that call for my pet if they had a chance.
But I once saw a squirrel hit by the car in front of me. The squirrel immediately went into convulsions...it was back flipping several feet off the road and had very clearly broken its spine. I was able to pull over and somehow get it into my emergency carrier, but it took a good twenty minutes to reach the vet's office. It convulsed the entire drive...if I had had the presence of mind to either hit it again or put it down a different way on the scene, I think that would have been far kinder.
One scene that always stood out for me was actually a crow that hit the glass side of the local movie theater. As I was exiting the building I noticed everyone in front of me would stop, look to the side, pause a few seconds, then walk on. About thirty people saw this bird flopping on the ground, considered the situation, and kept going. It was the middle of summer and the bird was panicking because people were passing by so close...he was in serious danger of shock and heat stroke on top of whatever injuries were suffered from the collision. My friend and I got a box from the theater and called the rehab place. He survived and was able to be released. I'll never forget all those people who clearly saw him and decided he wasn't worth the effort.
To the person who repped me for my post on this thread and got a laugh from it -
There was nothing funny about either of those incidents. I killed two animals with my car. Neither time was my fault, but I still felt bad about them. Certainly wasn't laughing as I drove away.
You know what really pisses me off. Owners that continue to let their dogs run after cars. There are a couple owners near my house that have let this go on for about a year. Luckily these dogs haven't gotten ran over. Fence your dog you dumbass. Oh, you can't afford a fence? THEN DON'T BUY A GOD DAMN DOG!
Sorry, but if I have to continue to stop and go a few times to make sure I don't run over your dog you don't need one.
I once narrowly avoided a 5 car pile up on a very busy street with a 55 mph speed limit because someone decided to stop her car in the middle of the road to help a tortoise get off the street. It's a nice thought, but several people got hurt. Plus she left the tortoise in the median.
I will stop for a domestic animal, but I won't touch it unless there is a collar with rabies tag clearly visible. (If not, I'll call animal control). Larger animals (deer, horses, etc) I would call the police, because there would likely be damage to my car and my insurance would need the police report. As for smaller wild animals, such as squirrels and opossums, if there isn't much traffic, then I would move the carcass of the side of the road. If it's alive, I'm not going near it and risking getting bit or scratched.
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