If it’s a Moose (someone hit one the other day in my area) or other VERY large animal, you should notify the police because it’s a hazard.
If I hit an alligator on the road, I’m not stopping to call anybody until I’ve crossed the border out of Florida to some sane state.
Anyone who hits something that might be a pet should stop and help and/or try to contact the owners IF it is safe to do so. If you stop for an animal somewhere that’s not safe and end up causing an accident you are criminally liable. That is correct IMO, the welfare of humans always comes before the welfare of animals.
It’s 70 degrees here right now. Totally worth it. Anyway, gators are usually harmless to anything larger than a dog.
Yeah, here in Montana it’s still technically the law but, as I understand it, the courts over the last couple of decades have made the radical decision that there actually isn’t ever a reasonable time for a rancher to just let his cows wander around on the highway unsupervised, and so no rancher has actually used the open range law successfully in years.
As far as I can tell, while livestock owners are not liable for damage to vehicles in open range areas, there is no law making a driver liable to the livestock owner.
Mynd you, møøse collisions Kan be pretti nasti…
Technically (I know of no actual case) you could have your car confiscated for poaching if you picked up pheasant that you had killed with your car.
I was driving a truck at 40mph one day, when a pheasant (they are really stupid birds) flew in front and was hit by the bodywork. I saw it fall in a cloud of feather onto the grass verge. I went back (stuff the law - I like pheasant) to collect it and saw it get up and fly off.
Short version:
I had a horse hit by a car a long time ago. The driver wasn’t hurt, my horse had relatively minor injuries (considering what it might have been) and the smallish car was totaled. I can’t remember if the police were called, they must’ve been but I don’t remember. I do know that the driver was great about it all (he’d been a farmer and knew that sometimes animals get out, despite our best efforts) and in the end the insurance companies worked it out.
If you’re interested in details, read on:
I was in Maine at the time, in a small town but on a major route between larger towns. My horse’s paddock was 3 or 4 strands of electric fencing which as a rule she respected. It was winter, and while there was snow on the ground we’d had a bit of a thaw the day before. My idjit horse decided to have a roll right next to the fence and managed to take down the bottom strands with her feet as she flipped over. She then wriggled out under the top wire and went gallivanting. This was at 4 or 5 in the morning, and some kind soul hammered on my door to tell me my horse was out.
The thing that saved this from being really ugly all around was that the road was icy from the previous days thaw re-freezing overnight. The few cars that were out were going slowly, and the driver that hit her saw someone else’s headlights veer or get blocked out. She ran right in front of him (I saw this…not a good way to start my day…) and he essentially scooped her up onto his hood. I think the slick surface saved her, not only because he was going slowly but because her feet just slid instead of grabbing the surface and breaking something.
The driver’s little car was a mess - bent A-pillars, crushed hood, cracked windshield. He was so nice about it, apologizing to me and saying that after working with cows all his life he understood, and was I going to be ok. Such a good guy. My mare was bruised and sore and had a few small lacerations. At first I thought that was all, but later in the day she apparently went to lie down for a roll or a nap again and dislocated her fetlock (ankle) as she got up - it seems the accident stretched/tore the ligaments but didn’t displace the joint at the time. She was able to walk back just fine right after the accident and the vet that came didn’t see anything then. Only later when I did a night check I found her standing with her leg at a not-good angle! She spent 8 weeks tied in the corner of her stall, then another year out in a field and after that she was just fine.
I remember some back-and-forth with insurance companies (his car and my homeowner/renter’s), but I don’t remember police reports (though there must have been?). I know I was never cited for anything and I don’t think he was either. This was almost 30 years ago though so my memory may be a wee bit furry 
Same here. Plus lions, tigers, bears, seals, gators, apes, monkeys, penguins and more.
Of course it was the Detroit Zoo off of I-696, but I always wondered what would happen if there was a breakout and they entered traffic.