Road Kill
 

One thing that really burns me about the car culture is the large number of animals I see dead or injured and suffering on the highway. It's even worse when a haughty cager mows down some critters for fun or because he doesn't feel like slowing down or stopping.

New Hampshire Democrat Admits Mowing Down Group Of Ducks With BMW

There's a special place in hell... :mad:

You get upset over 6 ducks that you have never seen?

If the scofflaw animals would just use the crosswalks and stop running lights and stop signs...

I don't think it's the ducks. It's violence for the sake of violence, and interesting that the driver would likely never do something like that in any other setting than behind the wheel. Not to mention that they were animals that people were actually feeding at the time.

I have a feeling that a person who could kill things with a car has the moral capacity to kill them with a different weapon. It's just that if he shot the ducks with a gun, he would be prosecuted for something. Using a car as the weapon sometimes grants immunity to the killer.

Here in Michigan, our state legislature just passed a law that imposes an additional fine on somebody who strikes a cyclist, walker, or other "vulnerable user". But I don't think it covers ducks.

One indication of a potential murderer is cruelty to animals.

I think some of this is a bit overblown, Yes deliberately running over animals is not a good sign... BUT, I would not jam on the brakes or swerve across the centre line or towards the ditch endangering myself and others in the car or other cars around me to try and miss some wildlife...

EDIT; Now before everyone gets their panties in a bunch, I did say deliberately...

I drive... a lot. I do my best to avoid hitting animals, even slowing or coming to a stop, if feasible. I do agree that cars are wreaking carnage, 1.27 million human fatalities every year, not to mention the collateral damage caused by air pollution and injuries. If it comes down to me wrecking the car or hitting an animal the animal will lose, but I am of the opinion that if people paid a lot more attention to their driving the number could be reduced.

Aaron :)

He'll have ducks in his nightmares...

Same here, and any sane person would say the same. But this guy was acting out a fairly obvious narcissistic rage: "how dare these damn ducks get in my way when I'm trying to do something important!" I bet anything that friends and associates would report other rage episodes when he perceived that somebody was obstructing or impeding his progress.

Unfortunately, similarly motivated behavior is common. You all have seen this before, when riding your bikes on a busy road--the honks, the middle fingers, the close passes....

Only if the ducks are out of season.

Just because you don't know those ducks names doesn't mean they don't HAVE names.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_Way_for_Ducklings

The person who taught me to drive commercial trucks insisted that, "If it has skin, feathers, fur or scales, don't risk yourself or the rig to avoid it." He clarified that this meant that I should cast my vision wide and far to anticipate where these hazards would come from and take appropriate preventative actions before the fecal matter hit the whirling blades.

Since this is a cycling forum, I will confess that I live in mortal fear of running over a squirrel.

I know their names, Donald, Daisy, Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

I hit a chipmunk with my pedal. It got flicked through the frame and ran away when it hit the ground. A doe once blocked the single track; I had to wait there while she hissed at me for a couple minutes. Canada geese will also chase the bike at certain times of the year, if you're going slow.

What about Daffy?

I know of a couple of BF quackers that could be described as Daffy.

Squirrelacide: When your ridding and just barely avoid a squirrel with your front wheel only to have him turn and bolt back under your rear wheel to skid across the road only to jump up and run in between the wheels of the guy following you...

Luckily it was only an attempt...

In November I was driving a bus and saw a deer running across a field. Her path would have taken her in front of me. Fortunately I saw her in time and honked the horn. It spooked her and she turned around and ran the other way.

I've killed tens of thousands of bugs while driving. I might have killed smaller things crawling on the ground but I couldn't see those. Twice birds have flown directly in front of my car and were killed.

I have seen at lest two photos of squirrels killed by jumping into bicycle front wheels.

This make me wish that all high speed roadways were elevated so that wildlife wouldn't be killed by cars.

There is a video of a super car on a track passing over a squirrel. The front spoiler chops off part of the tail of the animal because it was traveling over 100 miles per hour at the time. It was an instant amputation. The squirrel ran off. Look up Go Squirrel Go on Youtube.

More enlightened countries already have tunnels or overpasses crossing roads specifically to provide wildlife corridors. Highways in the Canadian Rockies are fully fenced and have flyovers connecting either side. Highways in Australia have fences and tunnels under the roadway.

Admittedly, these features are to protect drivers from, say, moose, deer and bear in Canada, and kangaroos and wombats in Australia. But they serve the dual function of removing the risks for both motorists and wildlife.

Does a human being qualify as the wildlife you would prefer hitting instead of endangering yourself?

You see, if you can't drive with the wherewithall to avoid the wildlife, you either aren't paying attention or are not driving to the conditions. A kid running out on the road could just as well be a deer or vice versa...

Shock horror about this, but I do agree with Ekdog's sentiments in his OP. I am always amazed how people get all twisted up about cruelty to animals such as dogs and cats because they are pets, but wildlife is fair game for running over with a motor vehicle.

In all my years of riding I can only think of one incident where I was involved with hitting an animal... we were racing in a criterium and a dog walked out right in front of the pack I was in, front rider went down along with most of the rest of us. The got up and walked away, several of us went to the hospital. One thing about squirrels and other wildlife is when they are threatened they go into an automatic panic mode which doesn't always get them out of harms way.

Aaron :)

That happened to me few years ago when I was riding along an MUP in a wooded area. A squirrel came out of the bushes and ran into my front wheel, impossible to avoid hitting it. Rode over it with both front and rear wheels.

I see someone got their panties in a bunch... Jumping from running over wildlife acedentally, to running over humans on purpose is a big jump. :twitchy: I didn't say I would do nothing to avoid hitting the animal, what I said was, I wouldn't over react to avoid hitting the animal and endangering myself and others...

I don't know, road kill seems like a pretty minor issue compared to pollution and 'development' that can terminate entire ecosystems. It's unfortunate that animals are accidentally killed by cars (or bicycles - I've run over a snake before, not intentionally), and despicable when drivers intentionally kill animals with their cars (wanton cruelty), but on the positive side we're not deliberately trying to destroy animal populations to make way for our machines anymore; e.g. the slaughter of bison to make way for railroads in the 19th century.

For the record, I like ducks, I had one for Christmas dinner.