Have you ever hit an animal with your vehicle?

[Droopy]

I drive for a living and I've hit several animals. I can remember hitting 5 birds, 2 opossums, and 1 skunk. I almost hit a large deer in Pennsylvania one time. I had to take some serious evasive maneuvers. If someone would have been traveling beside me at the time I would have gotten the deer.

I'd say that the worst one for me was that I hit a heron in my semi rig. I caught it with the right front corner of my windshield and it became lodged in my right mirror bracket. I had to get out and extract the bird from the mirror bracket. Not only was that gross, but I had to deal with killing such a beautiful creature up close and personal.

[Maine-ah]

1. I had a deer hit my car.

I did not hit the deer, infact, I had slowed down to 25 mph pulled to the right to avoid him, and he ran straight into the divers side of my vehicle.

Last summer I saved a seagull that had been hit by another vehicle, it had a broken wing poor little guy was still brown, just a baby.

We have had several run-ins with moose, but have been very lucky not to hit one. My first run-in with a moose, was with a bull, bugger was so big I could have driven my VW jetta right underneath him!

[seaglass]

13. The same exact thing happened to me a suicidal deer ran

into my car on an overpass - I didn't even see him.

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. Took out a pheasant, an opossum, and a bird wing

And a few chipmunks, I'm pretty sure.

The bird was weird - it was a robin or some such smallish common bird. Managed to hit my radio antenna while I was on the highway, with its shoulder, and it sliced the wing right off, which then continued to cling to the antenna for maybe 30 seconds or so. I have no idea what happened to the bird.

The pheasant, while I feel awful about it, was also quite spectacular: I nailed it with the rear tire, and I think it must ridden along with the wheel for a rotation or two, because I looked in the rear view mirror and was treated to a truly beautiful and amazing display of feather explosion.

[Left_Winger]

3. Once a deer ran in front of my car

It was late at night and there it was: a huge buck. I had no time to react. I was going 60mph in a 1978 Honda Civic. Needless to say, there was not much left of my car and I will omit the details of where the deer landed. This has haunted me for some time as I love all animals; and this one was beautiful.

[Droopy]

5. Deer are very dangerous

I've seen some really bad accidents involving deer. They can total a car and perhaps the occupants. I'm glad you are here to tell the tale.

[CatholicEdHead]

4. Deer, Raccoon, Grackel

The deer was a fawn who bounced off my Jeep grill, still took out everything in the front from the radiator to everythig connected to a belt.

[Droopy]

6. What's a Grackel?

[Left_Winger]

8. A grackel is a bird

which is about the size of a crow, although slightly smaller:

[Maine-ah]

7. wtf is a Grackel?

[graywarrior]

9. Christmas Eve, 1977 Peabody Ma

Hit a big black cat during a snow storm. Never got over it.

[freethought]

10. A porcupine.

I come over the peak of this hill and there it is. I tried my best to swerve away from it but I still hit it. The next day I'm driving down the same stretch of road and there is a few turkey vultures having a field day on the carcas. I felt bad about it. I had not hit anything before. Sucks.

[Wcross]

11. I hit a cow yesterday- only banged her head.

The farmer down the road doesn't do a great job keeping his cattle in the fence. It was 4:30am on my way to work and this dummy was on the side of the road, I slowed down and she decided to move to the middle of the road. I caught her with my fender with a glancing blow upside her head.
I hit a rabbit once with my windshield! I was driving down the road and a hawk had just killed it. As I approach he took off with it but had to drop it because he wasn't getting enough lift to get out of my way. It hit the windshield and rolled off. I am sure the hawk came back and finished his meal.

[Blue Diadem]

12. a few birds, 1 raccoon and when I was a teenager a small kitten

The kitten was one of ours(my parents didn't believe in "fixing" animals and we always had tons of kittens running around) I hadn't realized it was under the car..poor little baby. I called into work and said I'd be late..I wanted to get myself under control before taking care of customers. Then when I went in..my female coworkers meowed at me all day.

My daughter was driving the other evening when a large dog began running out to the road from the farm field. My heart was in my throat as my daughter tried to slow. Luckily it's an old dog so he can only run so far..then he walks. It's a 50mph road..and the darn owners let out their elderly yellow lab..surely they must know he mosies across that road to the farm fields.

When my oldest boy was a teen, he hit a bat with his car. He didn't even know it..until he saw wings in his grill and pulled it out.

[Pool Hall Ace]

14. I hit a squirrel once; I felt absolutely awful.

It happened to be at a very stressful time. I was living in the D.C. area, and it was during the sniper shootings. In fact, the incident occurred very close to one victim's residence.

I tried to avoid him, but you know, squirrels get out in the middle of the street and do a little dance. It was rush hour, so I could only do so much maneuvering. :cry:

[skygazer]

15. I never saw so many dead deer as I did in Pennsylvania

I started counting them and gave up after about 50 - just amazing. And most of them had been hit repeatedly. :cry:

I once clipped a dog - it dashed out between two cars and was suddenly RIGHT THERE. Clipped it with my quarter panel/bumper. I was so upset and stopped - the dog ended up being okay. The owner brought it to the vet to be checked over and called me to let me know it was fine. Phew!

The only other animal I've actually hit was a crow and it was sort of comical in a macabre sort of way. I was driving a pickup, the crow was in the road eating something dead and I just assumed it would fly out of the way as birds usually do. I kept coming, the bird looked up at the last minute and I saw its stunned face as I hit.

Felt bad. I don't like killing things.

[kwassa]

16. Geese sleeping in the road

I came up over small hill, and they were just there, sleeping, late at night. I barely saw them before I hit them. This was way out in the country.

O+ur local suburban area is so overpopulated with Canadian geese, who have no sense of cars at all, are really dumb, and just waddle into busy traffic. I am surprised I haven't hit one.

[NV Whino]

17. I hit a deer once...

Amazingly it was the only time I was traveling at the (rather low) speed limit on this street. Deer came charging down the hill, whanged off my left fender, scrambled a bit and then took off running again. A few seconds later, while I was still assessing damage, two dogs appeared in hot pursuit.

Then, coming home one day, a Kamikaze acorn woodpecker dove in front of my car. I looked in my rear view mirror as I continued and saw one lone feather drifting to the ground. I thought, "Oh great. Mashed woodpecker on my grill." I got home, parked the car and went to the front to look. I did indeed have a woodpecker on the grill, but he was very much alive and hanging on for dear life. It took a bit to pry him off, but he flew away, presumably with a harrowing tale to tell Mrs Woodpecker.

[lutefisk]

18. I've hit a few, but most memorable is the one I missed

The animals I have hit have usually darted out from the woods on a rural road. One experience was different, though.

A few years ago I was driving down a city street by a park and saw a family playing with their unleashed dog. I just happened to be looking in their direction when I noticed that the dog was running at a perfect angle to intersect with my car, so I begin to slow and cover the brake. Then, sure enough, the dog kept running at the same angle as the family stood helplessly watching- the whole episode only lasted 30 seconds but played out as if in slow motion.

As the dog crossed the sidewalk and ran into the street I braked as hard as I could (one of the few times the anti-lock brakes have actually kicked in on dry pavement) and the car stopped and the dog stopped at exactly the same spot, touching. I could only see the top of the dogs ears over my hood as the family ran out into the street to their dog. They were very upset and I wasn't sure if the dog was alright, but shortly they turned and walked away, kids crying, the dad holding the dog by the collar. It was a close call, but the dog was fine. The father looked back as he walked away with his family and their pet, and our eyes briefly met. I drove on.

It doesn't seem very significant- nothing actually "happened"- but that experience has stayed with me.