I was driving to school on a busy highway in Philadelphia, and there was a truck on the side of the road with about 10 dead deer in it. The guy trying to pull a deer that was still alive but injured onto the truck.
I thought maybe they would either kill the deer before putting it in the truck (maybe he injected it with something that didn’t take effect yet and was in a hurry?) or have someone try and rescue it. Either way it was kinda freaky to watch.
I have no idea what was going on in your situation, but I have seen a lot of animals die. Many animals go through an “agonal” phase in the seconds/minutes just prior to death. In truth they are dead already, but the body is responding to the sudden loss of input from the brain. The muscles spasm, making the limbs flail about. Sometimes the chest pushes air out of the lungs such that the animal vocalizes. The mouth can open and close like they are gasping for air. Lots of twitching. Animals that have a neurologic injury (like one that just got whapped upside the head by a car) seem to be most prone to having an agonal death.
If you haven’t seen it before, or if you only catch a glimpse of it, it can look a lot like an animal that is alive. The motion of the legs can seem coordinated, like the animal is trying to get away.
if you want an idea of what happens when you are dealing with an injured animal, just google the phrase “I need a bambulance”. Needless to say, I can not imagine a worker trying to work with an animal that is not yet roadkill.
Driving to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving one year on a very rural highway, I was right behind a car when it plowed into a deer and went off the side of the road. I pulled over to make sure everyone was okay (deer included). The driver and his wife were shaken up a little, but otherwise perfectly fine. Although it is generally not advisable to touch an injured deer, the husband and I both decided to drag it off the road so that nobody would hit it (it was night, the highway had a fair amount of traffic that often went far above the speed limit, and was completely unlit). The second we grabbed the (then motionless) doe by the legs, it immediately jumped up, stumbled a few steps, and then bounded off, almost as if nothing had happened.
As for the bambulance bit, I remember hearing that recording played (and subsequently ridiculed) on a radio show while at the hair stylist (Maybe it was Bob & Sheri? One of those awful syndicated comedy duos, but the bambulance bit was enjoyable)
Michigan has nearly 60,000 deer accidents a year. According to Wiki you can keep the deer if you wish.
You are supposed to call the cops if it is still alive. They will kill it for you.
I’ve never left the scene without making sure it’s roadkill. I’ve used a sledgehammer the most, and the most agonizing to do was definitly an incident with a heifer and pocketknife. I didn’t even hit the poor animal, the truck coming from the opposite direction who happened to be piloted but a friend of mine hit her. We literally had nothing but a swiss army knife and her back was broken. Don’t know if you’ve had much experience with cattle but they aren’t fragile creatures. Eventually (as quickly as we possibly could) we got the blade into her spinal cord and put the poor girl out, but that was hard to do (emotionally). I’m a utilitarian animal lover I guess you could call me.
I would have thought that the blood vessels in the neck would have been quicker and easier.
SSG Schwartz, that video is crazy… I couldn’t do those stunts in full possession of my facilities. If it weren’t for the fact that the ball stays in view, I’d think that was some sort of celebratory dance. The comments say that he lived, though.
I can answer the question as to what happens with already dead roadkill. One night at about 2:00 in the morning, my buddies and I were drinking in a hotel room. For some reason we were flipping through the phone book, and came to an entry, “New Mexico Livestock Recycling”. Intrigued, I called the number. The cute sounding girl who answered the phone laughed for about a full minute when I asked, “So… umm… what exactly is livestock recycling?” When she was done laughing, she explained that they’re a company that gets called when there’s large road kill on the highway. I don’t remember what she said they did with it; they probably used it for dogfood (WAG).
That’s basically what happened, except I think the legs were broken so it was more the head pulling back trying to fight the movement. As one of the other posters mentioned about seemingly injured deers that run away, I could see a problem with the deer loaded onto the truck half alive then jumping off.
Although it’s hard to say exactly what the guy was really doing with just the 10 seconds I drove by
SSG Schwartz, that movie is damned scary. Sometimes, I forget that we’re just meat. Harsh reminder
Santo Rugger: legally (in the US), animals that are already dead can’t go into pet food. Pet food has to be made such that it is safe for human consumption, because of the small but real number of poor people who keep themselves alive on pet food. Since any number of dangerous bacteria can quickly overtake unrefridgerated carcasses, dead animals can’t enter the food supply.
The livestock recycling place you called is better known as a Rendering facility. They turn animals that can’t be eaten into glue, pens, carpet, or any number of useful things that have animal products in them, but aren’t eaten by normal folks. Not that there’s anything wrong with carpet munching.
