Small furry animals
Discussion
ASBO said:
I was taught this once by a driving instructor (whom I might add I only had the one lesson with). He told me that should anything smaller than a dear run out infront of you, you are to effectively plow into it to avoid the potential of a car behind hitting you. I asked him what I should do if no car was following me and he said, hit it anyway...
Yeah, great 
I'll remember those sage words when I'm out on the bike ...All this business about not worrying about being hit from behind is fine, provided you don't mind whiplash.
I was in this very situation Sunday morning. I was driving along a twisty road with NSL in force, doing about 45-50 MPH approaching a down hill right hand bend with a Megane following a bit too close, a small rabbit ran in the road, I had already lifted off for the corner so was doing approx 40 mph, I moved to the centre of the road to miss the rabbit with the wheels, but as I looked in the rear view mirror, I saw the rabbit bounce off the Meganes tyres.
If it had been anything bigger it would have caused a nasty accident due to the driver behind being too close.
If it had been anything bigger it would have caused a nasty accident due to the driver behind being too close.
Might be worth cross-posting this to speed-plod-law forum to get some feedback from the resident BiB who "live" there.
somewhat related info, If I recall correctly, if you splat a cat no need to stop the car, just carry on, if you splat a dog you must stop and report it as an accident. Dogs would appear to have more rights!
Pet owners are liable to damage caused to your car by any colision too (certainly dog owners are, I know a couple of people who have had dogs escape from the garden and get run over, on top of vets bills they get a car repair bill too!)
Personally if it was avoidable without doing a silly manouver (major braking/swerving) I would take the neccesary action. However I have deliberatly splatted cats, rabbits, squirrels etc because it wasnt safe to do anything else. felt bad for the cats owners but its simply a case of "cat or me" and I choose me!
one final snippet of info from personal experience, if you care about what the front of your car looks like try not to hit a pheasant!! they stand quite tall and thier heads are much the same consistency as a lump of conrete so at 60mph they can do quite a bit of damage! I actually hit one at M-way speeds in a Mk2 golf years ago, wing, grill, bumper, headlight and slam pannel all damaged!!
somewhat related info, If I recall correctly, if you splat a cat no need to stop the car, just carry on, if you splat a dog you must stop and report it as an accident. Dogs would appear to have more rights!
Pet owners are liable to damage caused to your car by any colision too (certainly dog owners are, I know a couple of people who have had dogs escape from the garden and get run over, on top of vets bills they get a car repair bill too!)
Personally if it was avoidable without doing a silly manouver (major braking/swerving) I would take the neccesary action. However I have deliberatly splatted cats, rabbits, squirrels etc because it wasnt safe to do anything else. felt bad for the cats owners but its simply a case of "cat or me" and I choose me!
one final snippet of info from personal experience, if you care about what the front of your car looks like try not to hit a pheasant!! they stand quite tall and thier heads are much the same consistency as a lump of conrete so at 60mph they can do quite a bit of damage! I actually hit one at M-way speeds in a Mk2 golf years ago, wing, grill, bumper, headlight and slam pannel all damaged!!
Ran over a sheep once!
Coming over a small brow at NSL, flock of sheep ran out from small gully / bushes. Braked very hard. Can't go to the left as they are all heading left, can't go right as they are still coming out of bushes! Luckily no cars towards and could use all the road to try and pick a path through them. ABS works very well in such a situation. Eventually only hit one, well actually went over one! Must have been about 9 or 10 all in single file all running at full tilt! If i had been confined to one side road would have hit about 3.
No damage to car apart from getting my tracking realigned! I think the one i hit stumbled and was on the deck as i hit it, hence it went under the wheels, not into the bumper grill.
Dragged to side of road and phoned local Police.
I was mugged!
Coming over a small brow at NSL, flock of sheep ran out from small gully / bushes. Braked very hard. Can't go to the left as they are all heading left, can't go right as they are still coming out of bushes! Luckily no cars towards and could use all the road to try and pick a path through them. ABS works very well in such a situation. Eventually only hit one, well actually went over one! Must have been about 9 or 10 all in single file all running at full tilt! If i had been confined to one side road would have hit about 3.
No damage to car apart from getting my tracking realigned! I think the one i hit stumbled and was on the deck as i hit it, hence it went under the wheels, not into the bumper grill.
Dragged to side of road and phoned local Police.
I was mugged!
On the subject of colliding with small furry animals, only an hour ago, I read the following on another forum which had been cut & pasted from a US bike forum. How true is another matter, but it's well written and very amusing......
"I never dreamed slowly cruising on my motorcycle through a residential neighborhood could be so incredibly dangerous!
Little did I suspect.
I was on Brice Street - a very nice neighborhood with perfect lawns and slow traffic. As I passed an oncoming car, a brown furry missile shot out from under it and tumbled to a stop immediately in front of me.
It was a squirrel, and must have been trying to run across the road when it encountered the car. I really was not going very fast, but there was no time to brake or avoid it -- it was that close.
I hate to run over animals, and I really hate it on a motorcycle, but a squirrel should pose no danger to me. I barely had time to brace for the impact.
Animal lovers, never fear. Squirrels, I discovered, can take care of themselves!
Inches before impact, the squirrel flipped to his feet.
He was standing on his hind legs and facing my oncoming Valkyrie with steadfast resolve in his beady little eyes. His mouth opened, and at the last possible second, he screamed and leapt! I am pretty sure the scream was squirrel for, "Banzai!" or maybe, "Die you gravy-sucking, heathen scum!" The leap was nothing short of spectacular...
He shot straight up, flew over my windshield, and impacted me squarely in the chest. Instantly, he set upon me. If I did not know better, I would have sworn he brought 20 of his little buddies along for the attack.
Snarling, hissing, and tearing at my clothes, he was a frenzy of activity. As I was dressed only in a light T-shirt, summer riding gloves, and jeans this was a bit of a cause for concern. This furry little tornado was doing some damage!
Picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and leather gloves, puttering at maybe 25 mph down a quiet residential street, and in the fight of his life with a squirrel.
And losing...
I grabbed for him with my left hand. After a few misses, I finally managed to snag his tail. With all my strength, I flung the evil rodent off to the left of the bike, almost running into the right curb as I recoiled from the throw.
That should have done it. The matter should have ended right there. It really should have. The squirrel could have sailed into one of the pristinely kept yards and gone on about his business, and I could have headed home. No one would have been the wiser. But this was no ordinary squirrel. This was not even an ordinary angry squirrel.
This was an EVIL MUTANT ATTACK SQUIRREL OF DEATH!
Somehow he caught my gloved finger with one of his little hands and, with the force of the throw, swung around and with a resounding thump and an amazing impact, he landed squarely on my BACK and resumed his rather antisocial and extremely distracting activities. He also managed to take my left glove with him! The situation was not improved. Not improved at all.
His attacks were continuing, and now I could not reach him. I was startled, to say the least. The combination of the force of the throw, only having one hand (the throttle hand) on the handlebars, and my jerking back unfortunately put a healthy twist through my right hand and into the throttle. A healthy twist on the throttle of a Valkyrie can only have one result.
TORQUE. This is what the Valkyrie is made for, and she is very, very good at it. The engine roared and the front wheel left the pavement.
The squirrel screamed in anger.
The Valkyrie screamed in ecstasy.
I screamed in .. well .. I just plain screamed.
Now picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a slightly squirrel-torn t-shirt, wearing only one leather glove, and roaring at maybe 50 mph and rapidly accelerating down a quiet residential street on one wheel, with a demonic squirrel of death on his back. The man and the squirrel are both screaming *blinking* murder. With the sudden acceleration I was forced to put my other hand back on the handlebars and try to get control of the bike.
This was leaving the mutant squirrel to his own devices, but I really did not want to crash into somebody's tree, house, or parked car. Also, I had not yet figured out how to release the throttle... my brain was just simply overloaded. I did manage to mash the back brake, but it had little effect against the massive power of the big cruiser.
About this time the squirrel decided that I was not paying sufficient attention to this very serious battle (maybe he WAS an evil mutant attack squirrel of death), and he came around my neck and got INSIDE my full-face helmet with me.
As the faceplate closed part way, he began hissing in my face. I am quite sure my screaming changed intensity.
It had little effect on the squirrel, however. The RPMs on the Dragon maxed out (since I was not bothering with shifting at the moment), so her front end started to drop.
Now picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a very raggedly torn T-shirt, wearing only one leather glove, roaring at probably 80 mph, still on one wheel, with a large puffy squirrel's tail sticking out of the mostly closed full-face helmet. By now, the screams are probably getting a little ho*bottom*.
Finally I got the upper hand ... I managed to grab his tail again, pulled him out of my helmet, and slung him to the left as hard as I could. This time it worked ... sort-of. Spectacularly sort-of ...so to speak.
Picture a new scene.
You are a cop.
You and your partner have pulled off on a quiet residential street and parked with your windows down to do some paperwork.
Suddenly a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a torn T-shirt flapping in the breeze, and wearing only one leather glove, moving at probably 80 mph on one wheel, and screaming *blinking* murder roars by, and with all his strength throws a live squirrel grenade directly into your police car.
I heard screams.
They weren't mine...
I managed to get the big motorcycle under control and dropped the front wheel to the ground. I then used maximum braking and skidded to a stop in a cloud of tire smoke at the stop sign of a busy cross street.
I would have returned to 'fess up (and to get my glove back).
I really would have.
Really...
Except for two things.
First, the cops did not seem interested or the slightest bit concerned about me at the moment. When I looked back, the doors on both sides of the patrol car were flung wide open. The cop from the passenger side was on his back, doing a crab walk into somebody's front yard, quickly moving away from the car. The cop who had been in the driver's seat was standing in the street, aiming a riot shotgun at his own police car.
So, the cops were not interested in me. They often insist to "let the professionals handle it" anyway.
That was one thing.
The other?
Well, I could clearly see shredded and flying pieces of foam and upholstery from the back seat. But I could also swear I saw the squirrel in the back window, shaking his little fist at me.
That is one dangerous squirrel.
And now he has a patrol car.
A somewhat shredded patrol car ... but it was all his.
I took a deep breath, turned on my turn-signal, made a gentle right turn off of Brice Street, and sedately left the neighborhood.
I decided it was best to just buy myself a new pair of gloves.
And a whole lot of Band-Aids."
"I never dreamed slowly cruising on my motorcycle through a residential neighborhood could be so incredibly dangerous!
Little did I suspect.
I was on Brice Street - a very nice neighborhood with perfect lawns and slow traffic. As I passed an oncoming car, a brown furry missile shot out from under it and tumbled to a stop immediately in front of me.
It was a squirrel, and must have been trying to run across the road when it encountered the car. I really was not going very fast, but there was no time to brake or avoid it -- it was that close.
I hate to run over animals, and I really hate it on a motorcycle, but a squirrel should pose no danger to me. I barely had time to brace for the impact.
Animal lovers, never fear. Squirrels, I discovered, can take care of themselves!
Inches before impact, the squirrel flipped to his feet.
He was standing on his hind legs and facing my oncoming Valkyrie with steadfast resolve in his beady little eyes. His mouth opened, and at the last possible second, he screamed and leapt! I am pretty sure the scream was squirrel for, "Banzai!" or maybe, "Die you gravy-sucking, heathen scum!" The leap was nothing short of spectacular...
He shot straight up, flew over my windshield, and impacted me squarely in the chest. Instantly, he set upon me. If I did not know better, I would have sworn he brought 20 of his little buddies along for the attack.
Snarling, hissing, and tearing at my clothes, he was a frenzy of activity. As I was dressed only in a light T-shirt, summer riding gloves, and jeans this was a bit of a cause for concern. This furry little tornado was doing some damage!
Picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and leather gloves, puttering at maybe 25 mph down a quiet residential street, and in the fight of his life with a squirrel.
And losing...
I grabbed for him with my left hand. After a few misses, I finally managed to snag his tail. With all my strength, I flung the evil rodent off to the left of the bike, almost running into the right curb as I recoiled from the throw.
That should have done it. The matter should have ended right there. It really should have. The squirrel could have sailed into one of the pristinely kept yards and gone on about his business, and I could have headed home. No one would have been the wiser. But this was no ordinary squirrel. This was not even an ordinary angry squirrel.
This was an EVIL MUTANT ATTACK SQUIRREL OF DEATH!
Somehow he caught my gloved finger with one of his little hands and, with the force of the throw, swung around and with a resounding thump and an amazing impact, he landed squarely on my BACK and resumed his rather antisocial and extremely distracting activities. He also managed to take my left glove with him! The situation was not improved. Not improved at all.
His attacks were continuing, and now I could not reach him. I was startled, to say the least. The combination of the force of the throw, only having one hand (the throttle hand) on the handlebars, and my jerking back unfortunately put a healthy twist through my right hand and into the throttle. A healthy twist on the throttle of a Valkyrie can only have one result.
TORQUE. This is what the Valkyrie is made for, and she is very, very good at it. The engine roared and the front wheel left the pavement.
The squirrel screamed in anger.
The Valkyrie screamed in ecstasy.
I screamed in .. well .. I just plain screamed.
Now picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a slightly squirrel-torn t-shirt, wearing only one leather glove, and roaring at maybe 50 mph and rapidly accelerating down a quiet residential street on one wheel, with a demonic squirrel of death on his back. The man and the squirrel are both screaming *blinking* murder. With the sudden acceleration I was forced to put my other hand back on the handlebars and try to get control of the bike.
This was leaving the mutant squirrel to his own devices, but I really did not want to crash into somebody's tree, house, or parked car. Also, I had not yet figured out how to release the throttle... my brain was just simply overloaded. I did manage to mash the back brake, but it had little effect against the massive power of the big cruiser.
About this time the squirrel decided that I was not paying sufficient attention to this very serious battle (maybe he WAS an evil mutant attack squirrel of death), and he came around my neck and got INSIDE my full-face helmet with me.
As the faceplate closed part way, he began hissing in my face. I am quite sure my screaming changed intensity.
It had little effect on the squirrel, however. The RPMs on the Dragon maxed out (since I was not bothering with shifting at the moment), so her front end started to drop.
Now picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a very raggedly torn T-shirt, wearing only one leather glove, roaring at probably 80 mph, still on one wheel, with a large puffy squirrel's tail sticking out of the mostly closed full-face helmet. By now, the screams are probably getting a little ho*bottom*.
Finally I got the upper hand ... I managed to grab his tail again, pulled him out of my helmet, and slung him to the left as hard as I could. This time it worked ... sort-of. Spectacularly sort-of ...so to speak.
Picture a new scene.
You are a cop.
You and your partner have pulled off on a quiet residential street and parked with your windows down to do some paperwork.
Suddenly a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a torn T-shirt flapping in the breeze, and wearing only one leather glove, moving at probably 80 mph on one wheel, and screaming *blinking* murder roars by, and with all his strength throws a live squirrel grenade directly into your police car.
I heard screams.
They weren't mine...
I managed to get the big motorcycle under control and dropped the front wheel to the ground. I then used maximum braking and skidded to a stop in a cloud of tire smoke at the stop sign of a busy cross street.
I would have returned to 'fess up (and to get my glove back).
I really would have.
Really...
Except for two things.
First, the cops did not seem interested or the slightest bit concerned about me at the moment. When I looked back, the doors on both sides of the patrol car were flung wide open. The cop from the passenger side was on his back, doing a crab walk into somebody's front yard, quickly moving away from the car. The cop who had been in the driver's seat was standing in the street, aiming a riot shotgun at his own police car.
So, the cops were not interested in me. They often insist to "let the professionals handle it" anyway.
That was one thing.
The other?
Well, I could clearly see shredded and flying pieces of foam and upholstery from the back seat. But I could also swear I saw the squirrel in the back window, shaking his little fist at me.
That is one dangerous squirrel.
And now he has a patrol car.
A somewhat shredded patrol car ... but it was all his.
I took a deep breath, turned on my turn-signal, made a gentle right turn off of Brice Street, and sedately left the neighborhood.
I decided it was best to just buy myself a new pair of gloves.
And a whole lot of Band-Aids."
Above....hilarious
A few months back my girlfriend and I were driving home to Blackpool after a spirited drive through Scotland, at approx. 70ish mph, when something caught our eye.....a frog. It hopped from the side of the road, I adjusted my position on the road 6" to the right, it hopped again.
I don't like to think of myself as a bastard, and continued driving. My girlfriend however had different ideas. After getting about 5 miles further down the road, she broke down into tears, imagining that the daredevil frog was actually a hard-working froggy citizen, on the way home to his wife and spawn, who was maliciously slaughtered by some heartless prick (me) on the road.
We had to turn around, and find the frog.....
...it was there, flat and in the middle of the road, very squashed and I spent the next 3 days with a girlfriend who likened me to an animal-world Hitler....so I killed her rabbit he he
A few months back my girlfriend and I were driving home to Blackpool after a spirited drive through Scotland, at approx. 70ish mph, when something caught our eye.....a frog. It hopped from the side of the road, I adjusted my position on the road 6" to the right, it hopped again.
I don't like to think of myself as a bastard, and continued driving. My girlfriend however had different ideas. After getting about 5 miles further down the road, she broke down into tears, imagining that the daredevil frog was actually a hard-working froggy citizen, on the way home to his wife and spawn, who was maliciously slaughtered by some heartless prick (me) on the road.
We had to turn around, and find the frog.....
...it was there, flat and in the middle of the road, very squashed and I spent the next 3 days with a girlfriend who likened me to an animal-world Hitler....so I killed her rabbit he he
Faz_ITR said:
Above....hilarious
A few months back my girlfriend and I were driving home to Blackpool after a spirited drive through Scotland, at approx. 70ish mph, when something caught our eye.....a frog. It hopped from the side of the road, I adjusted my position on the road 6" to the right, it hopped again.
I don't like to think of myself as a bastard, and continued driving. My girlfriend however had different ideas. After getting about 5 miles further down the road, she broke down into tears, imagining that the daredevil frog was actually a hard-working froggy citizen, on the way home to his wife and spawn, who was maliciously slaughtered by some heartless prick (me) on the road.
We had to turn around, and find the frog.....
...it was there, flat and in the middle of the road, very squashed and I spent the next 3 days with a girlfriend who likened me to an animal-world Hitler....so I killed her rabbit he he
That just reminded me of an incident nearly 10 years ago, I was driving along with my GF at the time, and we saw an injured bunny in the road, clearly been hit by another car and not very well at all. WE CANT JUST LEAVE IT THERE screams the GF, fair enough, thinks me, best I got back and put it out of its misery, Ok I'll get it! I declare, doinga swift U-turn, back down the road, ready, ready, stay-on-target, obi-wan is telling me to use the force, SPLAT, perfectly aimed under the right front tyre, one very dead, and now not in any pain bunny. A few months back my girlfriend and I were driving home to Blackpool after a spirited drive through Scotland, at approx. 70ish mph, when something caught our eye.....a frog. It hopped from the side of the road, I adjusted my position on the road 6" to the right, it hopped again.
I don't like to think of myself as a bastard, and continued driving. My girlfriend however had different ideas. After getting about 5 miles further down the road, she broke down into tears, imagining that the daredevil frog was actually a hard-working froggy citizen, on the way home to his wife and spawn, who was maliciously slaughtered by some heartless prick (me) on the road.
We had to turn around, and find the frog.....
...it was there, flat and in the middle of the road, very squashed and I spent the next 3 days with a girlfriend who likened me to an animal-world Hitler....so I killed her rabbit he he
I turn to recieve my praise from the GF to see a face like thunder "I MEANT GO AND PICK IT UP AND TAKE IT TO A VETS!!!!"
Whoops.
i love all my pets a huge amount, but i would never never never take avoidance action if one jumped out in front of me. Whilst i love them, i won't risk mine or other people's lives for theirs. It's a question of perspective.
i did run slap bang into a deer one day when i was travelling really very very quickly in one of the work vans- i spent quite a long time cleaning the front of the vehicle- it never smelled right afterwards when it got hot!
be very very careful with large animals- elks and moose are hugely problematic becuase when you impact them you take their legs out with your bonnet, the car travels "under" the body until half a tonne of flesh impacts you and your windschreen
i did run slap bang into a deer one day when i was travelling really very very quickly in one of the work vans- i spent quite a long time cleaning the front of the vehicle- it never smelled right afterwards when it got hot!
be very very careful with large animals- elks and moose are hugely problematic becuase when you impact them you take their legs out with your bonnet, the car travels "under" the body until half a tonne of flesh impacts you and your windschreen
I'd just like to point a tiny something out in the light of people posting apparently fairly relaxed attitudes about running over a domestic pet, as if it's something trivial.
It is not.
Losing a cherished pet could make an already-vulnerable person (I'm talking mental health here) extremely ill - I've 99.9% recovered from my depression now and am delighted to be functioning normally (or as normal as I get) again, but even thinking about something bad happening to one of my kits absolutely wrecks me. Grief is incredibly debilitating as it is, it can be truly damaging in the long term for somebody who is already for whatever reason right on the verge of coping.
As to the comment about the cat owner paying for the damage? Crass. There's no excuse for an advanced driver being unable to avoid hurting something as big as a cat.
It is not.
Losing a cherished pet could make an already-vulnerable person (I'm talking mental health here) extremely ill - I've 99.9% recovered from my depression now and am delighted to be functioning normally (or as normal as I get) again, but even thinking about something bad happening to one of my kits absolutely wrecks me. Grief is incredibly debilitating as it is, it can be truly damaging in the long term for somebody who is already for whatever reason right on the verge of coping.
As to the comment about the cat owner paying for the damage? Crass. There's no excuse for an advanced driver being unable to avoid hurting something as big as a cat.
A few years back a friend of the family swerved to avoid a dog, hit a tree and was killed outright. So, in perfect visibility with excellent road conditions, well maintained brakes, no other traffic then think about slowing down and\or avoiding a small mammal. Otherwise - drive over it.
But watch out for deer or other large mammals. Another friend drove a Volvo estate into a deer that ran out in front of him and wrote the car off - he was lucky as the deer entered the car on the passenger side (he was alone) and tore the seat from the mountings. He was not speeding, just out in the country somewhere near Amersham.
But watch out for deer or other large mammals. Another friend drove a Volvo estate into a deer that ran out in front of him and wrote the car off - he was lucky as the deer entered the car on the passenger side (he was alone) and tore the seat from the mountings. He was not speeding, just out in the country somewhere near Amersham.
Gassing Station | Advanced Driving | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff