I don't know why this is affecting me so much

That's a cop out though isn't it Jaxie? Other people have to kill those animals so you can enjoy your meat.

Sorry you're feeling so sad at the moment phoenix. I'm sure that heightens emotions - you need some TLC. Hope Mr phoenix is around to provide some.

I feel very sad for animals that have been killed on the road, too (apart from a pheasant that flew into our car a few years ago - I was in tears about the poor bird until we saw the hundreds of pounds-worth of damage it had caused!)
Today, on the way home from a short break away, I saw a badger on the grass verge, and to see such a beautiful (or any other) animal wiped out - hopefully very quickly, is horrid. We can only hope that these poor animals died straight away.
Last night I was watching the local news in our hotel room, and it was reported that a tethered horse had been left to die on a piece of ground in the middle of a housing estate. (I can't remember the name of the place). The complaint was that people were having to walk past the corpse of the poor thing as they were taking their children to school. Why, why, why did they not report the creature to the RSPCA before it collapsed and died? One elderly lady was upset, saying 'They rely on us, don't they...it's just so sad'.
phoenix, there's nothing wrong with feeling as you do, just now. It'll pass. In the meantime, you know where we are.

Our LA asks people to report dead animals on the roadsides so they can collect them.

It's largely badgers around here, our soft sandy soil is ideal for building their ?Holts. The bunnies and hedgehogs usually get picked at by the crows and magpies and there is very little trace of them left within a few hours.

Wasn't there someone in Cornwall near Bodmin Moor I think who used to live on road kill?

Well Pheasant's are just darn stupid. I have never seen another animal with such little road sense. I wonder if they have poor sight or something.

Yes whitewave; and his wife was a vegetarian if I remember right....

A pheasant flew out of a hedge and I hit it.
Result? £270 bill for damage to car, pheasant flew away.......

I wonder if that was the one I saw by the side of the road yesterday loopylou.

I was going to stop and pick it up but then thought that 'I am not Janet Street-Porter, I can't be bothered to start plucking it, and all the rest of the preparation, yuck'.

I was thinking of this thread the other day as we drove southwards out of the forested area on the A11. We passed a deer, a badger, a fox, a squirrel, a hare, loads of pheasants and several rabbits. The carrion crow are going to have a wonderful time. However as DBH was driving I was able to observe two herds of deer and a couple of hares.

I didn't like to mention this earlier, but around here people do remove the deer. As they are too big to get into the cars, they always leave the head behind. I have never seen this elsewhere in the UK.

It was a few weeks ago rosequartz, blasted bird definitely flew away, as witnessed by a van driver who stopped to see if I was ok!

Roadkill is upsetting, when farming we reported dead badgers because the then Min of Ag tested them for TB, but at less foxes and birds get fed from it. Luckily I rarely see a dead deer although plenty of Roe and Muntjac around.

Can't quite understand people picking up roadkill to eat.....

It was Janet Street-Porter who mentioned that she does that when she was on Masterchef
You don't know how long it has been there

Yuck......
I've known people to pick up apparently fresh pheasants but I imagine they'd be smashed up. Pheasants are usually 'hung' until high putrefaction when shot anyway
Landlord when farming would bestow a brace on us peasant tenant farmers at Christmas. I could cope with skinning fresh rabbits but 'high' pheasants.......

Many years ago, when DH was driving a lorry for an abattoir, he saw a Roe Deer killed by a car. He stopped his lorry, hung the carcase in the back and brought it home and butchered it for the freezer.

He once brought home a pheasant that he had hit himself. I was trying to find somewhere to put it where the cats wouldn't find it so I left it in the bath. Unfortunately I forgot to tell DD when she arrived home from university and dashed into the bathroom. But I don't think the scream woke the whole road

A few years ago I fell off my bike because I wobbled onto the verge due to me looking at a dead fox cub on the other side of the road. As I was being loaded into the ambulance with a leg broken in 3 places (am I the only person to break a leg falling off a bike at a standstill?) a car pulled up and threw the dead fox into the boot. Why on earth did he not do that 20mins earlier !!!

As a vegetarian for over 45 years who did enjoy the taste of meat, I have been thinking about this from a different viewpoint and asking myself whether I might eat road kill since the animal was killed by accident.

Still haven't come up with an answer, but it's testing me

Regarding deer apparently if you hit and kill it you're breaking the law if you pick it up, but it's fine for the person behind you to take it!
Bizarre or what?

When I was younger, I would get really upset if we accidently hit a bird, a rabbit, or anything else, but I've become harder over time and nowadays when I pass a dead deer, my first thought is usually "I wonder how much damage that did to someone's car", followed quickly by "mmm, venison".
I've never gone as far as taking road kill home though - though never say never. Actually, I think that it's quite common around here to take these things home as dog food, unless that's just an excuse.

Kangaroos jump out in front of the lights of cars in Australia - we have hit one before now but when I suggested to DD and SIL that they take it home for dog meat they both looked ill.
Yet they buy kangaroo meat from the supermarket for the dogs .....

In Japan, most of the road kill are snakes.

With the spread of red kites, there will be plenty of demand for carrion, though I think they do pick off small prey too.

On the way home from work one morning I saw a dead kangaroo in the middle of the road, at least it looked like a kangaroo. It must have been a deer though, as we don't have kangaroos in Northumberland! On the way back to work in the evening I looked out for it but it was gone.
We also get a few badgers killed around here. It's a shame, as I have never seen a live one.

Yes that's right Loopy about the next person being able to take the carcass. I'm sure if I was in that position I would take the deer home for food, otherwise it is a waste.

Hilda, I wonder what it was?An escaped kangaroo? something that wasn't really dead, and took itself off.I have only seen dead badgers, never a live one, think you need to hang about in woods at night to see them, sadly I see them all the time on the side of the road.

We had an enormous badger sett on the farm, you could sit and watch them, in exchange for peanut butter sandwiches!

Nellie apparently/allegedly pheasants have tunnel vision, but heaven knows who worked that one out!

Yes, I agree they do seem prone to very daft behaviour!