Oh Angela!!
(((Angela)))Bless you for caring, many people (without a heart) wouldn't give it a second thought.
Here there are alot of reports of deer hit and alive on the highways, people have to call the state and usually law enforcement have to go out and put the animal out of its misery.
Out there I am not sure.

I've seen several injured animals on the road. I never stop to help them. I don't know what to do for them. I also feel bad.

I'm right there cryin' with ya Angela! I'd be shook for days seeing something suffer and I often wonder how I would cope if I were the one that caused it.

Jodi-

Ok, I have stopped to help an injured rabbit, and an injured cat.

If you're not prepared for this - just don't!! Moving the animal causes unbelievable stress. They kick and scream. If you don't carry old towels in your car to wrap them in, your car will be covered in blood. You must wrap them tightly and carefully, so they can't further hurt themselves. Never put a loose wild animal in your car!

I'm really not trying to be heartless, but if you aren't prepared with the old towels, and aren't willing to pay the local vet to put the animal down, well, just don't.

I always have a bag of old towels in my car, and I'm prepared to take the animal to the vet instantly, and to have it instantly put down, and to pay for it. I've had to do this about once every other year, and it hurts every time.

Thank you everyone.

MaryC - you are so right. I would have/should have taken it to the vet and had it put down. I'm going to put some old towels in my car just to have on hand. Hopefully I will never have to use them. But just so I'm prepared if there is a next time.

I have a mostly-indoor cat, who fancies herself a predator, and likes to wait by the door for a chance to slip out and stalk things around the front yard, like leaves and crickets. But this summer she got when the door was opened, and the next time the door was opened she slipped right back in, with a small brown bunny in her mouth. She dropped it in the middle of the kitchen floor. The poor thing was breathing, but limp on its side, and although furry with open eyes, it was very tiny. It had no obvious wounds, but was clearly injured. I was at a loss- no idea where she got it, where it came from, how she injured it, if it was already injured, or how to help it. And in my swim suit with my four kids and a friend in swim suits, we had opened the door to go the pool when the cat came in. Instead, we scooped it up in a towel, put it in a shoe box, loaded all the kids in the car, and rushed it to the nearest vet (ironically, a cat specialist). The receptionist took it back to the vet, but came back out shaking her head sadly.

It was more sad than I would have expected. We were all very quiet and just came back home, lost the interest in swimming. I know my cat was just doing what cats do, but it was hard to watch and explain to the kids. It just happened so fast, it really snuck up on me.

In most cases, I'm fairly sure that the damage to the animal would be too serious to permit it to recover.

It usually would be best to put it out of its misery ... and, if that is the choice, the sooner, the better.

If you have a hammer or other heavy object in the car, hit it on the top or fore-part of the head ... hard.

If recovery to a half-decent kind of life isn't going to be possible.

I know that it's difficult. There were two small kittens here a while ago that were crying piteously, one day - distemper, I think. They died within a few hours. I should have hit them, but couldn't. A couple of days later, the third one went through the same agony ... maybe I should have taken it to the vet after the first two died. I didn't do it in, either, unfortunately. Their bodies still lie in the garage - I haven't had the heart to bury them.

About a month ago, a couple of kittens in the barn, too young to have their eyes fully open, had the same problem. It was when I was looking after my friend's hunting dog and he wondered whether the dog might have been responsible, but I didn't think so. The first one was out in the open, but showed no marks, or moisture from the dog's saliva, etc. The second was under an old enamelled sink ... but the dog could have got at it. I doubt that it would have left it in there, though.

It's a difficult choice ... and even more difficult to implement.

ole joyful

P.S. Millions in northern, eastern and central Africa, having suffered the ravages of drought and, as herdspeople, loss of most of their animals for several years ... now are displaced from their homes by the insurrections, rebellions and warfare. Thousands, many of them children, die every month.

Zimbabwe, formerly bread-basket of Africa ... now is a basket case ... thousands rely on U.N. food aid.

Also Tibet. Burma/Myanmar. Iraq. Afghanistan. Georgia (the Asian one).

o j

I always call our Animal Control people to give them the location of the animal, even tho most times, it's when I've seen a dead animal.

I understand your sadness. :(

Angela, I feel your pain. i can understand being not sure what to do.
Years ago DD & I were driving in the city and there was a cat in the middle of the road, obviously injured, but still alive. We drove around the block, pulled to the curb. DD halted traffic and I picked up the cat and took over to the curb. A car dealership let me use their phone and I called the police and they said they would send an animal control officer out. Well, we waited over an hour, sometimes I would go out to the curb and look for them....side story....while I was standing at he curb, a car pulled up and a guy asked me if I was "working". I told him, no, I was waiting for the police. Boy did he ever drive away fast! LOL...Then I saw another police car coming and it looked like he was going to drive past, so I flagged it down. They pulled over and I told them what was happening. One of the police guys said, all this for a cat!! I asked him what would he have done if he had seen it laying there, injured. He said he would have run over it with the car. I was so angry. I told him now I know why some people call you pigs. Anyways, they had me follow them with the poor cat to a vets, and I payed to have it put down. Dottie

I wouldn't call the police. There was an injured deer upstate, hit by a car and lying by the road. Someone called police, they sent a dump truck, which proceded to RUN OVER the deer, killing it (painfully). There was an article in the newspaper,I've never forgotten. The police should have sent an officer with a rifle, to shoot it in the head. At least that's what I think. My daughter found an injured kitten on the road one night, she took it to our town animal shelter, who did accept it and hopefully got it treated. It had two broken legs, couldn't even stand, when DD found it. I had two incidents with my dog, who "caught" animals in our yard. A baby bunny and a turtle. I took (on separate occasions) these poor creatures to our vet and had them put down. The vet waived payment.