People, I have had a rather traumatic experience tonight.
Tissues, please...
I was leaving class; it was about 7:50pm, rather dark and cloudy. The college is in a sort-of natural area, and there is a lovely selection of wildlife running around. The street the college is on is mostly a slow-limit 4-lane divided by a grass and tree median.
As I was leaving, traffic started stacking up in a strange location. I thought there had been a crash, but since I was in the other lane, I didn't worry until I pulled up to the car I thought was involved in the crash. The car and the driver were fine. The baby deer the car was shielding from traffic, however, was not.
From time to time, idiots will use this road for street racing. Other prime specimens of humanity will buzz down the road well above the posted speed limit. I can only imagine that some deer were crossing the road when one of these lovely subhumans were bopping through, probably yapping on the cellphone, and the poor little guy got clipped.
It was so terribly sad. The guy was frozen still, perhaps waiting to die. He had blood and saliva coming from his mouth. A quick call to a hunter friend confirmed there was nothing to do but "help nature take its course." I stopped to help the other driver shield the deer until enough police officers could arrive to take our places; it just seemed like the right thing to do.
But what exactly is "nature's course," when it's the direct fault of a human's carelessness? That isn't natural, so I don't accept it. There are probably millions of people who have hit an animal with their car, but did they stop to make sure it was okay?
Did you know you could call the police to report the hit, and to get help from the animal control board if it wasn't okay? If you did know, did you call? If you didn't call, how do you sleep at night?
I was so upset when it was over, I cried. For the deer, who barely had one year of life lived, and who should have had a few more, at least. For humanity, who often puts self before service or compassion. For me, for feeling helpless because I can't protect all of nature's beauty from the selfish and inhumane.
After a rather rotten day of learning how to detect and report child abuse, this was not the way I had hoped it would all end. Please, God, send me a better tomorrow.
Oh, for the love of pete!
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3 comments:
That's horrible news, Soo. I hope today was better. Go someplace cool for lunch with your mister tomorrow. (We can double-date! heh heh heh)
BTW, I did not know you could get help from the animal control board in a situation like that. Thank you for pointing my brain in the right direction. I hope I'll never need it.
I didn't know it, either. The very nice (and very young-looking) officer who originally responded to the call says,
"If you hit an animal and it needs help, all you have to do is call 911. They'll notify animal control en-route and set up a road block to prevent further damage."
He did not say if the caller had to stick around, and I was too upset to ask.
Before this, I didn't know that, either. But I'm from a rather country setting, where a person called the nearest "hunter friend" for big game, or the vet for the odd dog or cat.
Up to this point, the most traumatic animal/car issue I'd experienced was when I was in high school--I was driving a huge conversion van (longer story) with my sibs in tow, and a flock of pigeons flew right in front of me. I got at least one, maybe two, and there were feathers everywhere.
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