What Will You Do If You See an Injured Animal on the Road?

The idea: We’ve almost all had the heart-wrenching experience of seeing an animal, wild or domesticated, injured or lost on or beside the road. We may have even inadvertently hit an animal that darted out in front of our car. Here’s what to do, courtesy of — surprise! — PETA’s Ingrid Newkirk.

The eloquent and controversial Ingrid Newkirk of PETA has a new book out called Making Kind Choices : Everyday Ways to Enhance Your Life Through Earth- and Animal-Friendly Living with 78 short chapters (click on the above link to browse the full table of contents), each containing advice on subjects that range from animal- and environment-friendly cleaning, shopping and cooking to humanely dispensing with rodents and weeds. One of the chapters deals with how to deal with a hurt or lost animal on or beside the road. Here is her advice (from my memory and with the help of the SPCA guidelines — anyone with the book correct me if I have something wrong or missed something important):

1. Be prepared: Keep a list of emergency numbers for your area in the car. You should have one of these anyway for the local hospital, doctors, insurance company, local police, drunk driving reporting line, roads & public works, power company, towing company and garage. Just add the numbers of the local humane society, animal rescue, wildlife rehab centre, pound and veterinarian. And be prepared emotionally — no matter what, this is likely to be an emotional roller-coaster ride.
2. Have a rescue kit: You should have a first-aid kit in your car even if you’re not a samaritan. Just add to it a big towel, a blanket, some gauze (to cover a bleeding area, or, in a pinch, to use as a muzzle), a snap-open can of strong-smelling food, fresh water, a water bowl, and a nylon lead. Keep it all in a cat carrier or strong cardboard box.
3. Don’t endanger anyone else in your rescue: If the animal is on the road, avoid getting hit from behind, brake carefully, and if it’s a quiet road park safely behind it with flashers on and have a passenger flagging other traffic. Use flares if you have them. Otherwise pull off safely to the side. No matter what, call the appropriate authorities immediately. If you cannot safely capture and securely transport the animal, tell them its precise location and description, give them your number, ask how long they will be and try to stay on the scene until they arrive.
4. Know your limits: Get help if the animal is large or appears very hostile or stressed. Otherwise speak gently, move slowly, do not look it in the eye, stay in the animal’s sight, and if it is injured or sick restrain it and try to wrap it and lift it into your car safely and securely and take it to the nearest veterinarian (call ahead). If you get bitten or scratched, be prepared for a rabies regimen. If there is a risk of the animal panicking in the car and interfering with your driving, don’t drive — leave the animal in your car, call and wait for help.
5. If it’s merely lost: Consider what you would want done if your pet were lost. Don’t assume it has been deliberately abandoned. Call to it patiently and calmly, restrain it and look for a tag or other identification. If there’s a house nearby try to find a neighbour who might know whose pet it is. In a rural area if there’s a name on the closest mailbox, use your cell phone to call the resident. Stay calm. If you can’t find it’s home, take it to the nearest animal shelter or pound. If you’re willing to adopt it if its home isn’t found, tell the shelter immediately, and be prepared to pay adoption costs (vaccinations, license, neutering).
6. At the vet: Although there are some kind and generous vets out there, be prepared to pay for any surgery or treatment needed. Some vets won’t treat wild animals or unvaccinated pets at all — if that happens, ask to be referred to one who will. If it’s a wild animal and it’s injured, unless the injuries are very minor and in consultation with the vet have it euthanized immediately — it will be terrified in confinement and unlikely to respond and survive in the wild again. If it’s wild and its injuries are minor, ask the vet where the nearest facility is that re-introduces animals into the wild, and work with the vet to get the animal taken there. If it’s a pet, the severity of the injuries will determine whether it’s more humane to operate or euthanize — work with the vet to decide what to do.
7. At the pound: Many animal control facilities are severely resource-constrained and may automatically euthanize animals that are seriously injured or even if they are healthy after a short claiming period. Some will not pick up stray or injured animals and may not even accept some animals. Stay calm, and give them the benefit of the doubt. Work with them, or find another place to take the animal.

This final advice from the SPCA is also helpful:

It’s likely that at some point you’re going to face such a situation. It’s helpful to know in advance what you will do. Think it through now. When it happens you’re not going to have time.

Postscript: Two important facts about saving injured birds:

Image: Harvest mice, now an endangered species, photo by Stephen Dalton from Secret Worlds.