An injured dog is lying in the road, dying.

[NuclearNed]

*This post might upset sensitive readers. In other words, if my wife is reading this, she needs to stop reading NOW.



Yesterday I was driving home on a back road and I saw a puppy that had obviously just been hit by a car. He was lying in the road slightly twitching. I kept on driving because I rationalized that he was probably in shock, and not feeling much at that point. I know some people who have told me that in that situation, they would have tried to run over the dog to finish him off and keep him from suffering even more. I considered it, but just didn't have it in me. Now I kind of feel bad about not doing it.

What would you do?

 

[moshquerade]

I would have got the puppy out of the road, and went door to door looking for the owner.

edit: :`(

 

[Zysoclaplem]

I would call my boyfriend or my sister, both whom have worked with animals extensively in the past, and still do. I would ask them.
They would tell me, and I would do whatever they told me. But chances are it would involve killing the animal.

 

[shadow9d9]

I'd stop, pick it up, and bring it to the vet.

 

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

I wouldn't "finish it off" just because some looney would possibly see it and suddenly I'd have an animal cruelty charge on my hands. If I was feeling generous, I'd take him to a vet and see if SOMETHING could be done. If not... I suppose I'd have left him alone. I dunno... hard to say without having ever been in that situation.

 

[dug777]

Are you kidding?

Get out, move it off the road, put blanket round it, go door to door if practicable, and if not, call the nearest vet.

 

[Boo Boo]

pulled over, dialed 911, and if needed pulled the trigger.

then gone back in time and ran over the person who started it

 

[ChaoZ]

I'd keep driving, I'm not much of a pet person.

 

[NuclearNed]

Originally posted by: shadow9d9
I'd stop, pick it up, and bring it to the vet.

I'm confident that it was past the point of being helped by a vet. Also, frightened, injured animals are a real challenge to pick up without getting bitten, so that usually isn't an option.

 

[gwrober]

Originally posted by: shadow9d9
I'd stop, pick it up, and bring it to the vet.

I've done this before. Sometimes there's nothing you can do.


On another note, I was leaving LRAFB one day, and the car ahead of me hit a raccoon - I only had a few seconds before I passed over it, and it lifted it's head right before I did. I still remember hearing him hit the underside of my car a few times.

 

[Saulbadguy]

Keep driving.

 

[PeeluckyDuckee]

Now imagine how it would look if you ran over the dog, but the people behind you coming up didn't know the whole story and just saw you running him over and freak out. What's the worst case scenario?

But I hear you, if I was faced with the same situation I'm not sure I can do it.

 

[RaiderJ]

Help it if possible, end it's pain if not. Had to do this to my own pet before. Terrible experience.

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: NuclearNed

Originally posted by: shadow9d9
I'd stop, pick it up, and bring it to the vet.

I'm confident that it was past the point of being helped by a vet. Also, frightened, injured animals are a real challenge to pick up without getting bitten, so that usually isn't an option.

Are you a vet?

I was under the impression you were some kind of IT guy

And yeah, a puppy in that state wouldn't be that hard to control, just whack some material gently around it's muzzle if you're worried, and there's no way it could bite ya.

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: NuclearNed

Originally posted by: shadow9d9
I'd stop, pick it up, and bring it to the vet.

I'm confident that it was past the point of being helped by a vet. Also, frightened, injured animals are a real challenge to pick up without getting bitten, so that usually isn't an option.

so why not make the effort to find the owner?

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Call the highway patrol or animal control.

 

[NuclearNed]

Originally posted by: dug777

Originally posted by: NuclearNed

Originally posted by: shadow9d9
I'd stop, pick it up, and bring it to the vet.

I'm confident that it was past the point of being helped by a vet. Also, frightened, injured animals are a real challenge to pick up without getting bitten, so that usually isn't an option.

Are you a vet?

I was under the impression you were some kind of IT guy

And yeah, a puppy in that state wouldn't be that hard to control, just whack some material gently around it's muzzle if you're worried, and there's no way it could bite ya.

Yeah - I'm just an IT guy, so I could have been wrong, which is the reason I'm second guessing myself today.

I'm 100% confident that this puppy wouldn't have survived. Without going into the details, he was very badly injured, yet still alive.

 

[AMCRambler]

Had something similar to this happen to me. I was coming up on what looked like a ground hog that had been hit and was in the middle of the lane. It looked pretty dead and the whole back half of it had been squashed. Since it was in the middle of the lane, I was going to try and straddle it since there was oncoming traffic as I'm almost on top of it kind of half stands up on it's front legs and turns to look at me. It was too late for me to hit the brakes and I could hear it's head hit my bumper very hard. I felt so sick after that but there was nothing I could have done. Hopefully hitting the bumper finished it off and ended it's suffering but I couldn't even bring myself to look in the rear view at it. That sucked. It pisses me off when I see animals dead in the road. It's not hard to see and avoid them in broad daylight, especially a ground hog which is not a very fast animal to begin with.

 

[manowar821]

Get out and cover it, call animal control. 911 could care less about animal injury calls... I wouldn't move it too much in case of broken bones.

I've done this before

 

[NuclearNed]

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: NuclearNed

Originally posted by: shadow9d9
I'd stop, pick it up, and bring it to the vet.

I'm confident that it was past the point of being helped by a vet. Also, frightened, injured animals are a real challenge to pick up without getting bitten, so that usually isn't an option.

so why not make the effort to find the owner?

I don't know. I was fairly traumatized by the sight of the poor animal, and wasn't thinking real clearly at the time. I really love dogs, my dog was riding with me at the time, and I guess my brain quit working. I think the warranty has expired on the damned thing.

 

[Alone]

I would have picked it up and taken it to the vet, like I did last time.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I would have ran it over, finished it off, and cried the whole time doing it.

edit: I've had to do it before. It really sucked.
edit2: This is all assuming that it's glaringly obvious that there's no saving the animal.

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: NuclearNed

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: NuclearNed

Originally posted by: shadow9d9
I'd stop, pick it up, and bring it to the vet.

I'm confident that it was past the point of being helped by a vet. Also, frightened, injured animals are a real challenge to pick up without getting bitten, so that usually isn't an option.

so why not make the effort to find the owner?

I don't know. I was fairly traumatized by the sight of the poor animal, and wasn't thinking real clearly at the time. I really love dogs, my dog was riding with me at the time, and I guess my brain quit working. I think the warranty has expired on the damned thing.

yeh, understandable.

i guess i just have such a love for puppies that i would have done what i would do for a human in this case.

 

[skyking]

Where I grew up, you'd put it out of its misery and find the owner in that order.
Where I live now, it went like this:
Racoon is hit, laying on the side of the road in shock.
I stop and see it is a goner. Sherrif stops.
"What are you going to do?"
'end its suffering'
"do you want me to call animal control"?
'no, I can take care of this'
"you are not going ot use a gun are you?"
< oh yeah, I'm packing alright:roll:> 'no, I'll pick up that 2"x4" there and kill it'
" don't get bit "
< under my breath> 'back to the city with you, officer friendly....'

 

[radioouman]

You could do this.... but for a dog