# Ran over a wild animal. Do you go stop or go back? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 14, 2010, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467 "2010-03-14T19:10:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![This\_Just\_In\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@This\_Just\_In\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/This_Just_In_2)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/21 "2010-03-15T18:06:57Z")
This reminds of a something a friend went through when we were still teenagers. He was driving with another guy (Joe) and a girl (Jill) that Joe was hoping to impress. Joe was driving and they hit a deer. Jill freaked - demanded they stop and see what happened. The deer was nearly dead but still alive. Jill demanded they throw the thing in the trunk and drive it to a vet. Being stupid and hormone driven teenagers the guys initially balked at this suggestion but wound up doing it anyways. Jill wanted to ride in the trunk with the animal - but Joe decided he would do that for her?!? So they drove to a vet, with Joe sitting in the open trunk with a nearly dead deer. Wildly stupid. Fortunately for Joe the animal was pretty bad off and didn’t kick him out of the trunk. Arriving at a vet office they waited a bit before the vet came out and put the creature out of it’s misery (much to Jill’s dismay of course). ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/22 "2010-03-15T18:14:57Z")
I stop. If it is dead I move it off the road. It isn’t dead, but is maimed and suffering (e.g. paralyzed hind quarters), I put it down with a pistol shot through to the brain. This, of course, only in areas where discharging the pistol is neither legal nor unsafe. If it has managed to get to its feet and flee, I don’t pursue; it may yet recover. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/23 "2010-03-15T18:37:16Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > That’s fantastic – because you couldn’t avoid an animal one time, _no one else in history could have avoided one_, making me wrong? Oh wait, you mention avoiding one _in that very accident you describe_. So what on earth are you saying “wrong” for? Because you earlier mentioned this > [@Sailboat](#): > > Sometimes it’s not possible to avoid hitting an animal. However, sometimes it is possible to avoid it if one is alert and in control of one’s car. A certain subset of stories about hitting an animal at night and in fog probably mean the driver was going to fast for safety given the poor visual conditions. and since I did hit an animal at night in the fog and posted a story about it I thought your comment was directed at me or anyone else in the thread whose anecdote could be grouped in “certain subset of stories” whose “driver was going too fast for safety…” But if you were referring to a certain subset of stories reported worldwide about hitting an animal well then I don’t doubt you could be correct. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/24 "2010-03-15T19:21:11Z")
Buried a few humans who swerved to miss rodents. If there is not time to think, there needs to be a safe habit and swerving out of habit is not safe. Over driving your lights and tailgating are bad habits that manny manny peoples do and they die a lot yet most people do at some time or other. A decision I made a long time ago, “I may chose to die for you but I will not die because of you.” So if it is you, them, it or me, I will drive to win or give me and mine the best chance even if it means a deliberate take out of you , it or them. I do not have to think about it anymore, the decision is already made and I go for it instantly. After 45 years as a pilot and 50 years of driving, it has kept me & all who were with me alive at least 8 times. So far I have not had to deliberately take out humans. Day isn’t over yet either, fixin to go to town. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/25 "2010-03-15T19:21:22Z")
> [@chela](#): > > Because you earlier mentioned this Note the _very first sentence_ of what you quoted. “Sometimes it’s not possible to avoid hitting an animal.” ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/26 "2010-03-15T20:26:02Z")
> [@This\_Just\_In\_2](#): > > This reminds of a something a friend went through when we were still teenagers. He was driving with another guy (Joe) and a girl (Jill) that Joe was hoping to impress. Joe was driving and they hit a deer. > > Jill freaked - demanded they stop and see what happened. The deer was nearly dead but still alive. Jill demanded they throw the thing in the trunk and drive it to a vet. Being stupid and hormone driven teenagers the guys initially balked at this suggestion but wound up doing it anyways. Jill wanted to ride in the trunk with the animal - but Joe decided he would do that for her?!? > > So they drove to a vet, with Joe sitting in the open trunk with a nearly dead deer. Wildly stupid. Fortunately for Joe the animal was pretty bad off and didn’t kick him out of the trunk. > > Arriving at a vet office they waited a bit before the vet came out and put the creature out of it’s misery (much to Jill’s dismay of course). Where I live in Oregon if you call the police and report a road struck animal that is still alive, like a deer, an officer will come and ‘dispatch’ the animal “BLAM”, and then call the road dept to come and pick it up. I read the county 911 reports on line and this seems to happen several times per week. There isn’t some animal rescue hospital that the thing is going to be Life-Flighted to and nursed back to health. If it were a pet, different story, but for wild animals that is just the way it is, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/27 "2010-03-15T21:08:59Z")
> [@Perciful](#): > > I stop. If it is dead i make sure it is off the road. This is what I do _in situations where it is safe to do so_. 1) to make sure it’s dead and not suffering and 2) to make sure it’s not going to cause an accident. I saw a car go into a ditch in winter when the (distracted) driver looked back up at the road and swerved to avoid a small carcass. Bigger carcass can actually cause a bigger accident if something ends up getting thrown. ---
**Author:** ![misterW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@misterW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misterW)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/28 "2010-03-15T22:25:30Z")
If I was smashed up by some big two legged creature in an enormous metal machine, I think I would be hoping that I could drag myself under a bush and quietly die. I couldn’t imagine that I would be hoping that the two legged creature would return to finish me off by stomping on my head or in some other brutal fashion. As an intern with the local soil conservation district, I was driving with one of the staff one day when we accidently drove through a group of baby quail. We missed some, but there were several wounded on the side of the road. The woman I was with decided to “put them out of their misery” by stomping on their heads, and methodically went to work in her big rubber boots. Apparently it wasn’t quite as easy as she figured, as it took multiple stomps for several of them. I remember thinking that it didn’t seem as if anything merciful had been accomplished. Of course, finishing them off so that one can bring them home to eat is a different matter. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/29 "2010-03-17T01:46:37Z")
I’d stop and check on a dog or a cat. Other than that, nope. I mean, you want to take a risk with a merely wounded badger or a bruised porcupine? ---
**Author:** ![moonstarssun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@moonstarssun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonstarssun)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/30 "2010-03-17T03:14:27Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Sometimes it’s not possible to avoid hitting an animal. However, sometimes it is possible to avoid it if one is alert and in control of one’s car. A certain subset of stories about hitting an animal at night and in fog probably mean the driver was going to fast for safety given the poor visual conditions. To be fair, we probably were going a bit fast for the conditions. It’s a road we travel frequently, so it’s easy to speed without realizing it. But it’s a highway with a speed limit of 65, so even if we’d been doing less than the speed limit, I don’t think we could’ve avoided hitting the raccoon–especially since he ran right toward us. ---
**Author:** ![T.Slothrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@T.Slothrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T.Slothrop)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/31 "2010-03-17T03:57:41Z")
Going back sounds dangerous. What if it is a \*counterfeit Chinese \* dead animal ? What if it is a \*Nigerian scam \* dead animal ? What if it is a _country-of-choice shoddy workmanship_ dead animal that was _already dead_ ? Stay in the car. Keep driving. Nothing to look at here. ---
**Author:** ![PandaBear77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/32 "2010-03-18T00:09:48Z")
No, I would not stop and go back if I hit any animal, be it a wild animal or a household pet. > **[Woman killed while helping injured cat identified](https://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/6603777/)** > > A 60-year-old woman was killed Saturday afternoon when she stopped to help an injured animal along a road south of Carrboro, according to the state Highway Patrol. ---
**Author:** ![misterW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@misterW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misterW)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/33 "2010-03-18T02:00:25Z")
> [@PandaBear77](#): > > No, I would not stop and go back if I hit any animal, be it a wild animal or a household pet. > > [Woman killed while helping injured cat identified](http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/6603777/) So if you hit and injure someone’s cat or dog, you wouldn’t stop to alert the owner that their pet is in need of aid? If you have so little confidence in your judgment as to whether or not you can do something as simple as safely pulling off the road… should you be driving? ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/34 "2010-03-18T04:58:39Z")
In my ambulance days we were prett much specifically instructed that anything large dog or smaller was to be hit. Swerving to dodge a 5-10 pound critter is going to do way more damage to your patient/partner/potential odds to collide with something bigger than just making a street pizza. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/35 "2010-03-18T05:02:27Z")
> [@misterW](#): > > So if you hit and injure someone’s cat or dog, you wouldn’t stop to alert the owner that their pet is in need of aid? I would be willing to bet you are more likely to end up getting clawed or bitten for your trouble, then sued for the death of their $10,000 purebred allergy free cat that got out. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/36 "2010-03-18T12:42:27Z")
> [@PandaBear77](#): > > No, I would not stop and go back if I hit any animal, be it a wild animal or a household pet. > > [Woman killed while helping injured cat identified](http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/6603777/) In the article you link to, the problem seems to be wearing dark clothing at night, as much as any other cause. It’s possible to stop for an animal without ninja-ing into the shadows wearing dark, nonreflective clothing, you know. ---
**Author:** ![misterW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@misterW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misterW)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/37 "2010-03-18T13:09:51Z")
> [@drachillix](#): > > I would be willing to bet you are more likely to end up getting clawed or bitten for your trouble, then sued for the death of their $10,000 purebred allergy free cat that got out. Why would you be clawed or bitten? I’m not advocating attempting surgery on the animal yourself; I’m saying that you need to stop to tell the owner what happened. I also highly doubt you have much to fear from a lawsuit for an animal that runs in the path of your car. And for god’s sake, if your driving is so incompetent that you can’t pull over without putting your life at great risk, find someplace to turn around and go back to their driveway. It is simply the decent thing to do. Put yourself in the owner’s shoes – how would you feel if someone injured your pet and drove off, leaving the animal to suffer and perhaps die from something that could be treated? ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/38 "2010-03-18T13:33:18Z")
Here, at any rate, it is a legal requirement to stop if your vehicle is in collision with any dog, pig, horse, mule, ass or sheep. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/39 "2010-03-18T13:41:38Z")
> [@misterW](#): > > Put yourself in the owner’s shoes – how would you feel if someone injured your pet and drove off, leaving the animal to suffer and perhaps die from something that could be treated? I’d understand completely, because in the circumstances I’d do the same thing as **drachillix** for precisely the same reasons as he outlines. You don’t know how someone is going to react to being told their beloved pet has come a cropper under your tyres- they might be upset but grateful that you told them and bear you no ill-will, or they might be distraught and convinced that you killed their beloved companion and fly off the handle in unpredictable ways. Courtesy would dictate that, where possible, you move the deceased animal off the road, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to leave it at that. ---
**Author:** ![misterW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@misterW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misterW)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467/40 "2010-03-18T15:43:43Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > I’d understand completely, because in the circumstances I’d do the same thing as **drachillix** for precisely the same reasons as he outlines. Drachillix was concerned with being clawed or bitten by a still living animal or sued. You are talking about fear of facing an unpleasant conversation with a owner over a dead animal. Those are the same reasons? If the animal is dead, I think the courteous thing to do is inform the owner. Not something to look forward to certainly, but letting an owner know that it was an unavoidable accident and that you are sorry can mean a lot. Sometimes doing the right thing is not easy. Driving off while the animal is still alive but injured, as Drachillix described, is a despicable thing to do. In that case you are preventing the animal from being treated. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ran-over-a-wild-animal-do-you-go-stop-or-go-back/532467.md?page=3)