So was in the car with my mother and she was driving..

[Never]

..when on the other side of the road I spotted a grey squirrel laying on the ground. It had been bit by something but it wasn't dead, instead it twitched along the ground, its front legs still trying to 'crawl' to the shoulder. It only took a brief glance to tell that:
1. It was dying.
2. It was in pain.

My mother had seen it as well, and I asked her to stop, but instead she sped up and went right by it.
Her explanation? She wasn't going to hit it, it might have bitten me and how was I going to kill it? With a stick? A rock?
I honestly don't know what I would have done if she had stopped, or more to the point, how I would kill it or even if I could. Still, I can't be the only person to feel an obligation toward an animal that's in pain; if an animal is dying at least let it die quickly.

Am I totally off base here?

 

[Never]

Should I take this to mean I'm a moron for even starting a thread like this?
One too many Disney movies?

 

[Svedish_Chef]

The question still remains... were you going to be the one to put a rock through its head?

And if so, are you the same person that could take a human of life support?

 

[Bubblegum *sugarless*]

I know how you felt. I passed a duck that had been hit and was still barely hanging on. I felt as if I should help it "move on" but had my daughter in the car. Instead I lucked out, when I reached the convenience store an officer was there, and I told him. He left to take care of it.

I hate seeing animals suffering on the side of the road, but I don't really know what I could do. If I was capable of ending it's misery.

 

[Adoratrice]

I think I squished a frog under my front tire two days ago....It was dark and I heard a distinct.........*squish* I am holding on to the slight chance that it was just a big leaf. I have yet take that route out of my neighborhood since then, let alone even LOOK at my tire. It really ,really bothers me to think that I did that, even if it was on accident.

What was the question? ohhh.....hey...wait a minute, perhaps the frog was already injured ...that would make it okay right? Yea , it was that "other" guys fault. Whew.....I feel all better now.

Never I could kiss you.

(Really)



Bubblegum, I just have to ask....why would you think that it was an Officer's job to take care of that? Why not just call the SPCA?

 

[beckbabe]

About three years ago I was driving when a duck walked into the road in front of me, on a six lane road at about 50 mph. I was so upset by the idea of hitting the duck, I swerved and came about an inch from slamming into a UPS truck. I didn't hit the duck. At the light this guy pulled up next to me, he said "OMG lady, you almost bit it...I was so sure you were gonna bite it lady." Since then my theory has been, if there's a duck...hit it. Unfortunately a few weeks ago when my husband was driving he almost crashed trying to avoid a squirrel (which he hit) and I was screaming, "Hit it..don't kill us," so now my poor son thinks I hate squirrels and I feel like shit about the whole thing.

 

[Starfish]

No Never, you're not off base. I would assume most caring people realize that that animal's chances of recovering in nature are nill, and misery from a slow death could be about the worst thing any living thing can endure.

I have had a similar experiance in the Grand Canyon. Some asshole hit a deer and left it to hemmorage to death. I came upon it, and all I could have wish for was a gun. I cried and cried as I sat by this poor thing in the dark of night on a well traveled road and no one stopped. I could have been the one who hit it, and no one cared. Except for the ranger who finally showed up, and released the poor thing from it's pain.

Road injury and death to animals is so common, yet I've only hit two animals in my whole life. Are people aiming for them? Are people so cold that they won't even stop to move a persons pet off the road. Saturday, to my horror, I saw an orange cat, Like my pumpky and my Jasper (rest his little soul) lying dead in the middle of the road. I cried then too, but I have no stomach for picking up someones dead pet. Fortunatly someone else did do it.

If I hit an animal. I stop. I get out. I make sure it isn't alive. I call someone on my cell to come help. People are assholes.