I live in Minnesota and it breaks my heart to see so many dead animals along the side of the road. Especially the deer. They are also hazardous to humans and already someone has been killed by one going through the windshield. I’m not blaming those people, but I wish people would be more careful and scan the road ahead with their eyes. I have prevented hitting countless animals by simply scanning the road ahead. Nothing can prevent all mishaps, but slowing down and watching for racoons, possums, cats and dogs and deer and any other animals would benefit everyone.
Well, Okay.
Now the extra skunks are under My house, What are you gonna do?
Nothing huh? Hmmmmm
Now that we have even more of them, can we hunt them?
No huh? Hmmmmmm
How will I be able to remember the song, “Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road.” if I don’t get inspiration once in a while? <---- joke
Besides, it is dangerous to the people in the car, see deer reference above. Really dangerous to folks like me that ride Motorcycles.
Bikers small the skunks a lot more than car driver do… Ewwwwwwwwwuuuuuu
Actually this points out that a) either people are not paying any attention as was suggested above or b) the animals are not learning or paying attention either.
Could this be evolution at work? Hmmmmm
I always wish the animals were smarter! But then I am reminded by looking at the wildlife around that we are going through THEIR territory.
Maybe they should put up a sign for the deer: “People Xing”
If only they could read!
Well you put a picture up too, of that angry guy with a small, disconnected head. Just like they have a picture of a deer for drivers who can’t read.
Um, does this have anything to do with one of Cecil’s columns, or with a Staff Report? 
I don’t think this has anything to do with a Straight Dope column, so I’ll move it to our MPSIMS forum.
I have only hit one animal since I got my license 3 and a half months ago, it was a opossum, it was night, it ran out about 20-30 feet in front of me. (My left eye is much worse than my right even with my glasses or contacts, my distance judgement sucks.) I saw it, I yelled at it. It ran to the middle of the road, turned around, ran back a few feet, then ran back in front of me. There were no other cars on the road, theoretically I could have swerved. But my dad told me about thirty times, while he was teaching me to drive, “Hit the deer.” Well, more elaborately he said that if an animal runs in front of you, if there’s no one behind you and you could stop in time then MAYBE slow down, but DON’T swerve and risk yourself, and don’t abruptly stop if you’re gonna get rear-ended. Just hit the damn animal, you are more important than the animal.
So I hit the possum. I felt bad about it, but hey, it ran out in front of me. You’d think if you see this big lighted contraption bearing down on you at 40 miles an hour you’d move.
That’s a sickening feeling, isn’t it? Your dad is so right, though. It is hard to not swerve, but I must admit I am a swerver and a braker, so I am trying very hard to spot the animals beforehand. No matter how keen your eyesight is, I think everyone will hit at least one animal in their lives. I happen to live in an area heavily poplulated with deer, but am also reminded quite often of the other, harder to see animals, like opossums, squirrels, rabbits, cats, dogs, and even toads! I guess the main thing is to be a naturally defensive driver and be prepared for anything!
There are a lot of deer here in town where I live. The other night I went grocery shopping at 1:30 AM (I hate crowds, and try to shop late at night to avoid them).
On the drive to the store, about 2.5 -3 miles away, I saw one deer alone, then a little further along I saw a small herd of 4 deer. Then on the way back, right in front of the high school, a herd of 6 deer.
I was in town (speed limit 25) so I didn’t hit any. But the deer around here are so used to cars they don’t even move out of the way. I have seen 3 deer walk slowly across the road in front of my car. Calmly walking, no hurry.
I think I sounded a little heartless in my post before… I really did feel very bad about hitting the poor thing… I almost cried. I yelled at it before I hit it, like “Oh my god, getoutofthewaygetoutoftheway Move!!!” and then I hit it and there was that THUD and I almost screamed. “Oh my god! I hit it! Oh, I hit the poor possum! Oh, oh, oh…” I felt sooo bad. But still…
Before I got my license I had to walk to work and back along this two-lane highway, the number of rabbits and birds I saw a long that road… once I saw a dog, and it was so sad, and I had to walk past it every day as it rotted there… Also, turtles. I’ve seen at least three crushed turtles along the side of the road, oddly enough. It is very said, but often it’s pretty unavoidable.
I often see deer early in the morning too. Just last week I saw one that did the same thing. It was almost humorous because he just walked across the road in no hurry at all! Luckily, I saw him approching from the ditch, so I slowed down and avoided him. I even saw a deer close to my residential neighborhood that would make any deer hunter proud. It was the first time I really saw a deer with antlers. I am also a turtle saver. I have been known to make a u-turn to go back and remove a walking turtle from the dangerous roadway. Unfortunately, I was thwarted twice in a row with rather large, freshly hit turtles. The worst was when I pulled over on a Texas rural highway to move a turtle, a passing car thought I had car trouble, so as they pulled over to assist, they ran right over the turtle right in front of my eyes! It was so terrible and gross!!! By the way, Antares JB, you didn’t sound heartless at all. You did all you safely could to avoid the possum.
I’ve never hit an animal in a car, but I did step on a mouse once. The little thing was running all over the sidewalk in a screensaver-like random pattern at about 15 mph and managed to scurry under my foot as it came down, despite my best efforts to avoid it. If you think hearing an animal hitting your car is a depressing experience, try hearing and feeling its little bones breaking under your foot. 
Grossssssssss! You just gave me the shivers. Actually not to outdo you, but I stepped on a half dead mouse that was in its final death throws after the cat got a hold of him. I was outside, and it was dark. I usually am barefoot, but thank God, I had shoes on. As stupid as it sounds, I thought I stepped on a potato! I screamed and did a jig when I saw what it was!!!