What to do if you find road kill

A road kill is defined as an animal or a group of animals that have been killed on the road by a vehicle. Road kills are not instances that are rare as many animals often fall victim to being killed on the road. When on a road trip, I bet in one of the ten you’ve had you have a killed an animal or two while driving. I have killed one accidentally myself. Animals which fall victim to this are often not fast enough to cross the road or accidentally caught up in the middle of it when two vehicles are passing adjacent to each other.



Animals such as cows, goats, dogs, deer and antelopes are reported cases of road kills in the past. Sometimes they are killed on the spot and lie in the middle of the road or limp off to die at the side of the road. Sometimes these road kills are accidental instances as I have mentioned but in some cases, people enjoy killing animals on the road. This means that they might have seen the animal crossing the road and speeded towards it and hit it.

You must be aware of what to do when you find a road kill because they are things that happen every time on the road. The following is what you can do once you find road kill:

1. Move the animal off the road. The animal might have been a big deer and once dead, the animal might be blocking the road. It is not appropriate to leave the dead animal in the middle of the road because other vehicles might come and squish it more. It also creates a sense of responsibility since it’s a human that hit the animal with a vehicle.
2. Sometimes it is advisable not to touch the animal. This is because once the animal died; it might have acquired some infections if it lied there for several days. Touching it would be risking your health because some animal diseases affect humans upon contact with the animal itself. The effects are not experienced immediately but allergies and other skin infections might follow you later.
3. If there is an animal handling and care centre nearby, then contact them. These people are trained experts on animal handling and would know what is best to do with the animal that has been killed on the road.

However, if you see an animal on the road, be courteous enough to let it cross first. Do not hit it. In some states, killing of animals without a valid reason is illegal. In some cases, the animal hit on the road might just be unconscious. Go check it and call the nearest animal health centre.


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