I was already having a bad week and this morning I hit a mother duck and her ducklings on my way to work. Anybody else having one of those weeks where you can't do anything right?
Posted May 27, 2009, 3:00 PM UTC
937
This is a long story, but about 3 or 4 months ago, I was driving home late one night after a party, and in the road there are about 40 ducks crossing the street. I stop my car and wait for them to pass, and thinking they're cute because there's just one huge white duck and the rest are brown ones, I take a picture. As soon as they get into the other lane, an oncoming car speeds straight over them, hitting about 25 or so, and drives off without even slowing down. I'm horrified, so I make a U-turn to the other side and park in front of the now flailing, dying ducks, and herd the other surviving ones off of the road, since they were just standing there in shock, I suppose. I had some newspapers in my car so I tried to move the mostly alive ones to the side of the road where they wouldn't be hit again. I called the police to see if they could do anything to help, and they sent over an officer who then proceeded to do nothing but ask me why I cared so much about some wild ducks, and that I was blocking traffic (even though I was redirecting traffic while waiting for him to come for a half hour.) He told me to leave and that he wasn't going to do anything about it, not even move them to the side of the road. Then, I realized that there was a 24 hour animal hospital down the road, and zoomed over there to get some help. The hospital staff was great and went out immediately to go pick up the surviving ducks and bring them back for treatment. The cop had left by that time, with nothing cleaned up or moved. Only two ducks survived, one of which had to get its eye removed, but that's better than being dead.
My only regret was that I didn't remember the animal hospital was there sooner. =(
18
You are an awesome person!
5
He really is. I would've just sat there and cried.
5
Thank you, but I was just doing what I'd hope anyone else would do in my situation. =]
1
many people suck but i'm glad you have this compassion, don't lose it
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1
Maybe you did it exactly right. In a parallel dimension you swerved out of the way, hit a tree, and died in a violent explosion...that also killed the all the ducks.
10
One time I drove past a turtle as he was trying to cross the road. I didn't hit him, but I turned around so I could stop and carry him across. By the time I got back, someone else ran him over. Biggest regret ever for not stopping right when I saw him.
5
I think I hit a duck about 3 years ago. Made me sick. :(
I was driving home & a line of ducks were crossing the road. It was early morning & didnt see them in time. I didnt hit any with my wheels.... but I may have hit one with my undercarriage.
And about a month ago I accidentally stepped on a toad. Well, I kinda scraped him along the asphalt a bit with my boot & didnt actually crush him (literally step on him). I know I must have broken at least a leg. He lay on his back just reeling from it. A couple of minutes later he hopped a short distance. I picked him up & laid him in the grass.
I felt really bad about that. :(
WHat is odd is I could care less about hitting a squirrel or bunny or deer, but hirting other animals accidentally really effects me. I've gotten a bit over-emotional in my old age.
4
WHat is odd is I could care less about hitting a [...] bunny
I KILL YOU AARAGAGHA
6
My wife and sister in law thought my method of mechanizing a bird that their Labrador had bit mid flight was rather odd.
The bird was pretty much mangled, wing broken, body punctured. So I put a plastic bag over it and dropped a cinder block on it. I figured it was more humane than stepping on it, or trying to scoop it into the bag and swinging it against something.
Although in retrospect, I think the bit of beak that was left over on the sidewalk might have skewed their opinions.
Edit: Euthanizing not mechanizing, duh. Didn't change it in line because it made me laugh when I saw it.
4
cybird
1
I'm afraid of insects. So when I see them in my house I instinctively kill them. But I always feel remorse right after, sometimes for hours or days.
3
I've gotten a bit over-emotional in my old age.
A lifetime of suffering can do that to someone I suppose. :|
1
What a horrible feeling. I remember the time I ran over a bunny rabbit. Fortunately I've never killed any cats or dogs that I know of.
3
Once I was walking along the sidewalk and I saw a brown rabbit laying in the grass. I looked at its leg and the bone and flesh was showing. It was still alive but wasn't moving. Some people had already seen it as there were carrots left by its side. So I took the rabbit up in my jacket and took it home. I jostled my sister off the phone and called animal services. They came to my house and picked it up. I regret forgetting what the charity's name was -- I wanted to donate some money.
3
I have also been forced to kill mice at work on more than one occasion. Both times were at food industry jobs. They have those mouse traps that are just sticky pads the mice get stuck to and starve to death. Well, I guess I was the low man on the totem pole so it was up to me to take the mouse, still squirming in the trap, put it in a bag, and smash the bag against a wall hard enough to kill the mouse. One of the worst days of my life.
1
Ouch. I killed some mice as well. Sucks.
2
Sorry to hear that you're not having a good week.
I ran over a duckling last summer on my way to work as well. Since it was my usual drive-to-work route, I then had to pass over the same smooshed duckling for the next week or so. I felt awful.
2
Gosh, I didn't even think of that. Ugh.
1
Oops. Sorry. Um, maybe a scavenger will come along and nature can take its course. Or something. If it makes you feel any better, there have been a couple studies on how ducks have some gay necrophiliac gang-banging tendencies so some of your ducklings might've grown up to be huge pervs. I'd provide a link to some info but I really don't want to search for that kind of stuff at work.
1
now you just gave me a bad morning....
2
Did you at least salvage the situation by having roast duck for dinner that night?
1
On a roadtrip several years ago my friend accidentally hit a turtle on the interstate. We saw it about 2 seconds before we hit it, my friend had no time to react. I was riding shotgun, I shouted "Turtle!" when I saw it but there was nothing to be done. We all turned and looked out the back in time to see it flipping through the air, several feet off the ground. We deduced that the tire must have just clipped the little guy's head and the front of his shell, catapulting him into the air.
1
One of those weeks?
I'm calling it 2009 :(.
1
One time I was driving to work and was stuck in traffic. I was in the slow lane and, a few feet over on the shoulder, was a possum who had been run over, but it was still alive. This little possum was struggling to get away, but it was stuck because the front of it's face and nose had been mashed into the corrugated pavement so hard it was stuck.
I wish I would have gone back and just run over the poor thing to put it out of it's misery, but I was late for work.
1
I think I ate a duck for breakfast.
1
I'm sorry your week is terrible. I've been having those every week for the past few months except this one somehow, but this week I've got way too much on my hands what with doing homework around Google IO. It's still not to the shitty quality, though. Good luck in the future.
1
yesterday I spilled Guiness all over my friends (who are a couple) white sofa....
then i went to a different friends house and proceeded to spill Guiness on his cloth chair and rug...
1
This too shall pass. I once hit a cat at 4 am and instantly killed him. About a month later, in the same spot, hit another one. Same result. Some things are unavoidable.
0
You're right, but somehow knowing that it was unavoidable doesn't make that feeling in my gut go away.
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-1
Keen observation, but:
(1) I don't drive a Volvo. (2) I don't live in IL. (3) I ran over ducklings, not goslings.
So, despite popular belief, I am not responsible for the H1N1 virus.
3
I've hit a deer, armadillo, all kinds of shit... who cares?
-1
Interesting question. Try not to obsess over it too much.
1
Nothing can be done about it. Was an accident, and it's just an animal.
0
You monster!
Yeah, hitting the mother might have been an accident, but did you really have to go back and kill the ducklings too?
the worst!
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