Dogsey

Not saying much more on this subject but I do think that any dog or animal that we take under our roof to love and care for deserves the send off that we should give to any living creature. Be it human or animal.

I agree Carole. I have had the painful experience of putting a number of dogs to sleep over the years and would never let them go alone if I could be with them .
The last thing I can do for them is to hold them ....

Carole, I stood with my Brownie after his injection and watched as he let go. I even filmed for all who loved him to say goodbye. It was sad, but it was his time. I then took his body home and buried him here on our property. I will do that to all my dogs who need euthanasia.

To me, it's not the same. Roadkill often looks and smells terrible and you've already lost the chance to say goodbye. Neither I nor the dog would gain anything from me seeing him dead like that. It would only serve to upset and disgust me, and the dog is dead, so not the same as being there on euthanasia day.

Edit: I stroked his head and spoke sweetly to him, but he was unconscious instantly and so IMO, it wouldn't have mattered if I did or not. He could not hear me, see me, or feel my touch. People have the right to feel sentimental about these things, I just simply see no reason to force people to deal with the dead if they don't want to... or to call it a duty or obligation. Death is part of life...

I don't think here bodies are generally just left to decompose by the roadside. they are removed fairly quickly. We get foxes left until thet are just mush ground into the tarmac by wheels but I've never seen that with a cat or a dog. I had a cat run over about 30 years ago there was very little damage to him but he was dead. I had another survive a hit and run he was treated for shock and fully recovered. I once thought one of my cats had been run over, stopped the car, picked him up and put him in the boot in a blanket, took him home and buried him in the back garden, Only for mine to appear in the kitchen several hours later ffs. I saw a poster on a lamp post for a missing cat and had to tell the owner what had happened, luckily she was just happy to know and didn't want me to dig him back up. I've hit 2 dogs in my car the first one apparently rolled under the car came out the otherside and disappeared into the woods. Or so I was told by other drivers who had a better view. The other one was horrible I hit a little terrier at speed on the M25 couldn't stop or do anything about it all I could do was ring the police and let them know what happened. Horrid.

They're often just left on the roads here. Prisoners or people serving community service are usually the ones to take the bodies, if they're taken. Especially in summer time, you'll moderately frequently see the dead, bloated, and decomposing bodies on or slightly off the road, and smell the stench as you ride by. These are usually dogs, as you said... the smaller animals just get run over into mush.

If I was certain my animal wasn't in this type of shape, I'd get him and bury him... but here it's frequent that the dogs have been run over several times, or left to rot after being struck and killed. I have no need to see any once living thing in that sort of shape.

Oh, and the police will accuse you of wasting their time unless the animal causes a severe road threat, such as a deer or very large dog in the middle of a busy road. Our police? Respond or even make slight time for dime a dozen roadkill? Don't make me laugh!

Well our police didn't accuse me of wasting their time, for all we knew the dog may not have been dead and could have gone on to cause an accident. The police were quite helpful actually.

I did check on the UK Road Traffic Act, the last time this subject cropped up. It states that you should report a collision with any reportable animal to the police, within 24 hours. This can be done at a police station, or by notifying any police constable.
The RTA specifies the following animals as being reportable:- pig, cattle, goat, ass, sheep, mule, horse or dog. Sorry cat lovers, but the current law doesn't include cats, though I'm sure the police would do their best to help, (ie. report a microchip).

Yes, report it. Unless there are multiple reports of an animal obstructing the road, nothing will be done. The police do not have time for that, additionally, the road workers usually do not fall under the police jurisdiction. Why you think police who are in a city full of violent crime would try hard to help identify road kill is beyond me. The U.K. police likely care a ton and have the extra time to deal with it, our police do not.

The police actually advise motorists to hit animals instead of swerve around them. Swerving greatly increases your chances of crashing, and risking your life for the life of an animal in the road is not something normally considered here. They also advise motorists to not stop to remove the animal, again doing so is risking your life. Pull aside and call wildlife services (not police) if you can with the location... and really that is all you can do.

Actually I would say it needs to be a town ordinance that animal control stays on top of cleaning up the poor dead critters. Not even a squirrel should be laying there decomposing...yuck. Then again with all the cutbacks around here it can be difficult to find someone to do the clean up. Last week I was driving at dusk and couldn't avoid running over the legs of already very dead deer. It was laid out over the entire lane. I stopped and told a security person at the nearby hospital but who knows...it might have taken days for someone to carry it off.

Yup, I agree. It's like that here, too. Animals just laying in the roads getting run over again and again and nobody does anything. Eventually the animals just turn to mush and there is no longer a need to remove them. Sad, but like you said... with the budget cuts and everything else, it's not a high priority. Here, community service convicts often do the work... but they never do it in a timely manner.