Seeing as we’re well into the season of the suicidal deer, I was just wondering what stories other drivers have of hitting wildlife on our roads, and what is the protocol if you hit something big. Last week I was going up the very quiet M66 in the dead of night and was confronted by a small deer that insisted on just standing there and looking up at me gormlessly, luckily I managed to spot it from about 400 yards away and I slowed down to a virtual stand-still, I just had to go around it as it refused to budge. I’ve narrowly avoided a few foxes, but unfortunately hit a few pheasants (which must be the most dopey animals on the planet). If you do hit a large deer is it a case of stopping and ringing 101?
No lad, phone Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall and he will have a good Venison recipe for you. 
Pete.
I’ve had a pheasent attempt to enter my vehicle through the windscreen on the M25. Couldn’t avoid it. It hit that hard my Sat Nav bracket even jumped off the windscreen. I ■■■■ myself!!!
It’s actually illegal to pick it up if you run it over … But perfectly legal for the next bloke to take it 
syramax:
It’s actually illegal to pick it up if you run it over … But perfectly legal for the next bloke to take it
Classed as Poaching isn’t it?
I used to hate running over anything, even squirrels and rabbits, but it couldn’t always be avoided. Luckily nothing large though, I dreaded hitting a dog or cat and thinking that I had killed someones pet. I remember one of our drivers at Tilcons Ballidon Quarry, the Late Geoff Land, hitting a pheasant and chucking it in the passenger side footwell. I caught him up just as he was setting off again and a few minutes later he started veering across the road, the bird had recovered and was flapping around in the cab! Geoff stopped and wrung its neck, he wasn’t missing out on a pheasant lunch.
Pete.
I have taken home a few birds in my time (pheasants mainly).I let the neighbours dog have the entrails,that put me on good terms with her dog anyway.Once you take the head and feathers off there isnt much bird left.
syramax:
It’s actually illegal to pick it up if you run it over … But perfectly legal for the next bloke to take it
Only in blighty, none of this zb in Africa or Asia-EAT IT…
I have a nice deer in my freezer, … hit by a high power bullit
Had a fox wander into my headlights on the A11 about 2AM last week. No chance of avoiding the poor thing as it exploded all over my front end. YUK! A few nights later, (after a thorough jetwash,) returning from Bury St. Edmunds through the Elveden forest at silly o`clock, I spotted some movement up ahead by the heavily wooded verge and anchored on as firmly as I dared. As I drew level, three fallow deer sprang out right under my nose again. Suffice to say, they were way luckier than foxey.
Hiya…i hit a pheasant,s head one day with just the mirror. stopped grabbed the bird threw it in the foot well
no problem, mum will fix a stew with that,scratch. anyhow on Scratch my way home i scratch noticed that scratch
i had vis scratch ers in the scratch cab… i then realized after some more scratching the bird was full of lice .
well mum did do a stew and it was great…the next time i got a bird in the trailer it went no getting in the cab
with me.30 years on my nails have only just grown back…LOL. Windrush i was doing a stack of work out of Sheffield
and running through Baslow back towards Buxton…you’ll know who,s pheasants they was. say now,t
John
I hit a badger on the A69 two weeks ago. Went under the front wheel and slammed into the front of the draw-bar.
The boss had to get the truck jet wash people out to clean it off as there was blood and flesh everywhere. It was
well dried on by the time I got back to the yard.
A38 Haldon Hill Exeter , often have to swerve to avoid killing Deer that are often in the middle of the road , particularly at night or early hours of morning , got so close to one once i could smell its breath as i passed it.
I had the head of a pheasant imprinted on my headlight once, also saw a dead otter on the A5 near Chirk a few weeks ago, I felt sad for that one as they are not so common.
Was on a job a while back with a couple of Chris Bennets of Wilmslow’s wagons. This subject came up and one of them said “this story will trump most stories”.
He reckoned that his mate was tootling along, early morning, when, quote " the world just exploded!" It turned that a deer had jumped the fence on his n/s and had hit his screen, 
. Apparently, the entire cab was a blood-bath with bits of dead deer all over the sleeper, and the driver had bruising on his chest from the antlers!
My next-door neighbour, sadly passed away due to the stress of having a weirdo for a wife 
, told me that he had a goose fly into the screen on a 2 day old Volvo. TM was not best pleased 
Pigeons have got to be up there as one of the stupidest creatures on the planet, ive hit loads of them over the years, they seem to stand in the road till the last second or two then attempt to get out of the way, an old Nimrod aircraft has more agility than a pigeon. Ran over a badger a few months ago and it felt like id ran over a large bolder. Went past the same badger the following evening and all was left of it was its dried out fur, guess the local foxes had had a good feast.
theantbox:
syramax:
It’s actually illegal to pick it up if you run it over … But perfectly legal for the next bloke to take itClassed as Poaching isn’t it?
yep
alamcculloch:
I have taken home a few birds in my time (pheasants mainly).I let the neighbours dog have the entrails,that put me on good terms with her dog anyway.Once you take the head and feathers off there isnt much bird left.
just use a sharp knife ,skin around the breast and cut out then bin the rest . whats left isn’t worth the struggle
This one would take some cleaning up! richardsnowwriter.com/2011/09/27 … -kangaroo/
Pete.
windrush:
This one would take some cleaning up!Pete.
Streuth, cobber!! Looks authentic and plausible enough to me. I can just imagine the guy initially wondering where the bloody thing had vanished to! 
pheasants are without a doubt the stupidest animals ive had the misfortune of coming across, at certain times of the year on the A697 up to greenlaw theres kamakazi pheasants everywhere ! they will quite often be on the opposite side of the road and actually seem to take off with the full intention of doing themselves in, over the years ive had to have 4 windscreens replaced, never had a run in with anything larger though, nearly had a deer once when I was joing the m1 from the m25, it was about 3am and I came round the sweeping curve to be confronted by it just standing there staring back, luckily it moved just in time
am a bit of a softy when it comes to furry animals but don’t ever feel an ounce of regret when its a pheasant or a pigeon, they bring it on themselves !!