If you hit a dog in the road, would you stop

[newbury]

I have noticed the exact same thing on Faceboook in my area. All the local community and block watch pages on there.
<snip>

Maybe you should stay off FB.
I was getting a "neighborhood" watch list in my email for a decade. For the longest time it was like an old fashioned physical cork bulletin board like in the office. It evolved. It went from the printed community newsletter --> digital newsletter --> neighbors writing about neighborhood stuff (like road construction) --> neighbors writing about neighbors --> neighbors writing about anything that entered their vacant minds.
The last couple of years it became lots of post about "suspicious people caught on camera", these people usually turned out to be other neighbors walking by or authorized sales reps for home improvement contractors, doing the same thing that has been done in the neighborhood since I moved in in the early 80's.

When I was learning to drive we lived on a rural country road that wound through the farms in northern Vermont. Often the farmer had his house on one side of the road and his barns on the other. Often there were two or more tick laden dogs that would come out and chase your tires.
At about 7th grade my Dad took me down to one of those farms. Got me hired, $0.50/hr. They had several dogs and a main road (RT 15) between the house and the barns. They "lost" 2 dogs in the couple of years I worked there. The drivers stopped, came around, said they were sorry. The farmer accepted it as something that happened to dogs that chased cars.

But in this day and age it's different. Luckily I have not hit a dog. But there are about 3 on my 16 mile drive to town in Fulton that are often in the road and several times over the last decade I've left rubber in panic stops.

Now some of these are in front of poorly kept yards that look dangerous. If I hit a dog there I would continue on and call the police. Others in front of residences that look like they are maintained by responsible people. There I might go up and knock on the door,

My Dad taught me don't swerve for the dog. Stop maybe, but make sure there's nobody on your bumper.
"Loose" dogs are one step up from loose squirrels.

 

[MoKelly]

"Loose" dogs are one step up from loose squirrels.

My goodness. Dogs are many many steps up from squirrels!

It’s not the dogs fault he is loose. He is either abandoned or allowed by its owner to roam. It’s the owner - not the dog.

But even if loose, that doesn’t mean the dog is a throw away and doesn’t deserve some compassion.

MoKelly

 

[AWSubie]

Whether you stop or not, I won’t judge you.

 

[shooterdon]

I would not stop. If the pet is not injured badly it will hobble home and the owner can deal with it. If it is injured badly, I am not gong to risk getting bit, or sit there waiting for the owner to show up, or for the dog to die. If it is dead, the coyotes will take care of it.

I cannot see any upside to stopping. But if it makes someone feel better, then it works for them.

 

[sandman2234]

I hit somebody's Walker Hunting Dog on a six lane road doing 55mph. I stopped, pulled the dog off the roadway, stripped it's collar which had the owners name on it. The dog was 50 miles from it's home, a small community west of Jax. I worked with someone from that community, and gave the collar to him to return to the owner. I told him where I hit the dog, and when. Back then all the car tags were coded to the county that you lived in, and for about three weeks after that, I had a rash of cars from that county on my street. I finally deduced that the owner must have thought that I had stolen the dog, or picked it up in the woods (it was right after hunting season) and decided to keep it, and returned the collar to the owner so he would quit looking for the now deceased dog. I finally walked out to the street and flagged down one of the cars from the county next door and invited them to come look over my property. He didn't deny or confirm that he was casing my house looking for his dog, but me telling him that he was welcome to verify that his dog wasn't on my property must have either told him that I didn't have his dog, or had already moved it to a different location. You never know what people are thinking for sure. The traffic went back to normal, which was good and I never mentioned this to my co-worker.
People are strange!
David from jax

 

[4570Man]

I would not stop. If the pet is not injured badly it will hobble home and the owner can deal with it. If it is injured badly, I am not gong to risk getting bit, or sit there waiting for the owner to show up, or for the dog to die. If it is dead, the coyotes will take care of it.

I cannot see any upside to stopping. But if it makes someone feel better, then it works for them.

I’ve never hit a dog but I agree. Between getting bit or sued or some other owner problems it’s pretty much all downsides.

 

[Paddy]

So, I have seen stuff on Facebook, and Next Door, where everyone attacks the idea that if you hit a dog, in the road, and not stop. Now, I get the people making the posts are probably upset, But... If you drove down a rural-rural/residential road, and hit a dog, would; would you stop, and if you stopped, what would you do? I'm gonna say right here, these posts, I did Not hit their dog, but I have hit a dog in the past. I checked my vehicle and left.

Do people think you should knock on doors and try to tell someone that you ran over their dog? Seems like a recipe for disaster. If their dog was in the road, I would try to claim against their insurance, not offer to pay for their dog.

Do people expect you to load up an injured wild animal against its will, and take it to a Very expensive vet? I personally would not be offering to pay, possibly thousands of dollars for someone's animal.

Do they expect you to humanly put an injured dog down, right on the side of the road? Would that be worse. Someone drives by to see you popping a dog on side of the road, not a good look.

Where I live, it has paved roads with 2-10 acres properties, about 3/4 of the lots are just wooded lots without houses. It has a reputation for people dumping their unwanted dogs off, and we regularly get stray animals. If would the dog having or not having a collar matter in your decision?

I have dogs, and I would be a bit upset id they got hit, and my wife/kids much more BUT; its our job to keep them out of the road.

Sorry, not a cheery topic, but every time I see a post calling these guys monsters, and calling it a Hit and Run, i think to my self; what the heck do you expect someone to do?

View attachment 716899

My dog was hit many years ago. It was not the drivers fault. A family friend was staying the night and walked the 1000 ft to our mail box to get the newspaper. My dog followed and got hit.
Both were nearly deaf. It happens.....

 

[kf4uda]

I hit a dog a few years back. It ran out in front of me at the last second. There was nothing I could do. I stopped and checked the dog. It had already perished. I moved it out of the road so it would be ran over. The dog had no collar. I then stopped at a couple of the closest houses but found no one home so I left not knowing what else to do.

 

[deezler]

Dang, kind of a tough call sometimes. Certainly depends on the scenario.

Dogs should never, EVER, be loose and running in a major roadway. If you're going 50 mph, it is absolutely not the drivers fault that a dog is in your way. But on a 15mph nieghborhood lane, try not to hit one? I dunno.

I would certainly stop and see if the dog has tags, if it was hurt bad enough that it didn't run away from me. Maybe call the owner, let them know, and leave? They will have your phone number but no other information, not likely to find or come back at you.

But dogs are (relatively) intelligent mammals. They deserve our compassion and care, not to get run over and left to suffer alone.

 

[hube2]

In some states, like the one I live in, it is the law that you must stop and that you must either contact the animals owner or call 911 and report the indecent to the police. This applies to dogs, cats, horses or any animal that is classified as cattle. You are also responsible to make sure that the animal receives any appropriate attention. Not doing so is considered hit and run in this state.

I imagine that it is the same in many states... looked up Florida and they have similar laws.

Whether or not you can be held liable for damage to the animal depends on other laws. For example, in my area dogs are not allowed to run free and must be leashed. So basically, while I need to call someone if I hit a dog that isn't leashed it's really not my problem. I might feel bad for the owner, but it was not my fault. Then there was a recent case where someone purposefully ran down a dog and there were witnesses and he went to jail.