Have you ever hit or injured an animal or bird

obi_waynne

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We've all done it and there is even an old thread on here about it but it would be interesting to hear our new members experiences.

So have you ever hit an animal or bird in your car? Did it do much damage and how did you feel afterwards?

I've hit a few birds in my time from a sparrow to a pheasant. All were unpleasant and harrowing experiences. The pheasant decided to cross the motorway, pause and then run in front of my car!:blink:
 
I live out in the sticks so sadly its a regular occurrence!

My Active Aero light came on the the Mitsi and I couldn't figure out why - so I looked in the scoop at the front and there was a pigeon stuck in there...

Then I hit a badger - I saw it run out and so slammed my brakes on but it doubled back and i hit it - yet again I scooped it up :(

It always makes me really sad when I hit something and always do my best to avoid it - although my granddad told me never to swerve out of the way as its not worth the accident for me or my kids.

Having taken his advice a deer made a right mess of my BMW!
 
I have hit a pheasant at 60 and it destroyed the front grill, all I could see was feathers and no bird! I wasn't too bothered as it came out of nowhere so had no time to react.

So far I have managed to dodge the odd cat, fox and dog. On my way to work I have seen many foxes, badgers and the odd deer. However the worst one recently was a new Punto that was virtually written off with a huge buck lying in the road, luckily the driver was okay if not a little shaken.

As for pidgeons, well I do my damdest to hit them!
 
Rabbits! All the time.

Always make sure i go back and finish them off other wise they suffer unecessarily.

Apart from that i've been lucky. Touch wood.
 
I've hit a Squirrel on the bypass, that stood no chance and I had a car to my left so I couldnt avoid that. No damage.

And a pigeon flew out of no where when I was doing 30 and just went BONK on the front right wing, that was hilarious.

When I had the Civic, a dog ran out after a cat, cat jumped a wall, dog was literally right in front and I slammed on, locked up and stopped in time, it had to literally jump out the way, but it was still in front of the car when I stopped. Very close. Very scary. The owners were on their drive laughing. I was like, erm, what?
 
i hit 2 animals, 1 a dog, he lived
the other a pheasant, he must have lived, as he dissapeared when i turned round
 
i thought i hit a kestral one night doing 70mph, it just sat in the middle of the road and was a case if i hit it or i swerve into a tanker coming towards me, so i hit it :( got home and saw that half of it was still stuck to lower grill....... next morning went to clean my car up and dislodge said bird only to find there was no way it could be a kestral as what i thought was half a bird left was just a wing and it was far to big to be kestrals........... i was heartborken cos the only thing i could think it could be was a buzzard and felt so guilty for killing it even though it cracked bottom of bumper :(

only other thing i have hit was a seagull, that one was qiuite funny though cos when i looked in rear view there was just like a big puff of feathers lol
 
Ive hit 3 rabbits, one under the wheel of the focus, one under the car in the mondy and one hit my windscreen after being flicked up by my mates R32.
 
Very nearly had a badger but managed to avoid it. But I did get a pheasant in the windscreen. I thought it was coming through as I was doin about 70-80. But I was lucky and it just bounced off.....
 
Very few over the years. I thumped a hare between Tiddington and Waterperry (Oxon) in 1999. A pheasant in december 2001 in Long Crendon and a sparrow in 2006 that had the nerve to embed itself in the lower grille so firmly that I had to chop its head off to remove it from the car. Messy business.
 
Road kill should not be ignored though; if you can pick up a pheasant that's clean with little internal bleeding (green belly) then do so. Hang and eviscerate (guts out) immediately you get home. Pick off the feathers and then return to hanging place for a couple of days.

Now, fast roast as if a cheapie supermarket chicken.
 
nearly got a pidgeon in the face at about 70 the other day, would NOT have been good as I was trying to de-mist my visor so it was open a bit.

but no, never hit one yet
 
I hit at rabbit at 60mph a few months back. No damage to the car it went straight under the passenger wheel. I went back to look where it had ended up and there wasn't a mark on it. It was a "clean kill" with no blood. There was no disease on it either so it went in the boot. :bigsmile:
 
Occasionally I've been unable to avoid the odd bit of wildlife. It's pretty rural around here.

I missed a muntjac a few months ago but only by a few feet.

Killed a couple of pheasants, sadly both went airborne about came down so hard on the road that they were black bellied and would be inedible. I'd have taken 'em home otherwise.

And I recently had a sparrow embed itself in the lower front grille, below the bumper. I had to pull its head off to remove it.
 
I hit a rabbit at ~ 80mph. knocked the lower plastic part of the front grill between the fogs out of place, but it clipped back in perfectly fine.
 
HDi please not that that is illegal if you your hit the phesant. However it is fine for the person behind you to stop and pick it up, work out that one

I know. Supposedly if you kill it and then collect it yourself it constitutes poaching. I'd be more inclined to prosecute the birds' owner for negligence. :)
 
About a year after i got my license i wound up hitting a cat going 80. stupid thing ran half way cross the road at full speed so i figured i was good and didn't slow up. then the dang thing turned around a strutted back to its original side. Hit it dead center of the car and when i looked out the back the thing rocketed up about 15 feet before hitting the road. Pulled over and held an impromtu funeral for it due to the wife feeling bad.
 
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pheasent+porche+155mph=sugar
 
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Wouldn't fancy the job of cleaning that Porsche!!

I hit a Monk Jack deer one in a mini bus through the city of Peterborough, scared the bejesus out of me.

Knowing there was adults/children around, i thought i had hit a human. This 'thing' just ran infront of me, and had no time to hit the brakes, let alone stop in time.
As i looked in the rear view mrror, i saw something biggish laid on the ground behind me. I instantly thought i had hit a child, you can't imagine how i felt at the time.
Got out, walked over, then saw it had 4 legs, so realised it was an animal, probably a dog.
Was not until i got closer, i saw that it was a small deer.

I rang the police, they said that they would call the RSPCA to deal with it.

Coincidently i later heard about a deer that got trapped in some iron railings in the town centre, before fire crews could catch it when it was set free, the deer ran off.
I reckon it was the same deer that i hit, not a good day for the deer was it?!!

Cheers
Dave
 
Only a two or three times when I;ve been totally unable to avoid doing so. I did get hit form behind in 1994 in Datchet (Berks) whilst stopping suddenly for a hare in the road.

I've shot a few rabbits and pheasants in my time but I hope this doesn't count given that I pulled the trigger on each occasion with intent to kill outright.
 
Had a couple of rabbits go under my front wheels over the years. Driving around country lanes most of the time, it's a bit hard not too.
 
Pheasants are dim bastards. Run in front of a car with a reasonable chance of making to the other side of the road. Then stop halfway across and deliberate whether or not it might be prudent to return to the side of the road they were originally on and whether it might be quicker to do that than carry on across.

But - they've got WINGS. Why don't they just fly. They're quick enough to do so when the beaters come out in October. That's the time to lay low and stay still. Then none would get shot !!!
 
Have taken out numerous rabbits - in fact used to have a nova saloon and some guys sitting in this shooting rabbits with an air rifle as we drove down the road. Worst though was hitting a baby deer, smashed both back legs and it just kept making a whimpering noise. Had some girls in the car and they wanted to take it to the vet but a kindly farmer (who for some reason had a baseball bat in one hand) offered to sort it out - which made the girls happy until they realised it wasnt getting a trip to the vets.
 
Ooh look its Skippy [BOOM!!]

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Fancy some kangaroo with your pork?

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RIP to the driver of the blue car :( (both vehicles are Ford Falcons)
 
But - they've got WINGS. Why don't they just fly. They're quick enough to do so when the beaters come out in October. That's the time to lay low and stay still. Then none would get shot !!!

Didn't help the one that flew in front of the work wagon about 18 months ago. I just clipped the rear of it and it spun into the hedgerow.

Cats are pretty dim too. One "froze" in the middle of the road once, and my mother drove over it. Heard it's head keep bumping off the floor. Once she was past it just ran off. Must have had a heck of a headache though.
 
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Thats crazy. I do know it is illegal to own any part of a badger or to eat a Swan.:eek:

"If it were legalised, what part of a badger would you most like to own?" - new thread?

Perhaps not.

I'm told by my mother in law who lives in Norfolk that it's now quite legal to shoot and EAT a Canada Goose which are classified 'pests', but you can't sell them.

I did run over a cat once, or so I thought, but when I went back to the spot a few seconds later, there was no sign of it anywhere. Maybe it used up one of its 'nine'.
 
I had a close call the other day with a cat, I still don't know how I missed it but the daft thing just sprinted into my path. I'd expect this sort of behaviour from a dog but not a cat!
 

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