Roadkill

[Theseus]

Saw a sad sight on my way in this morning.

Cycling along the Redford road & just about to pass Dreghorn Barracks there was a dead fox lying in the middle of the carriageway.

As a country boy I understand the need to control numbers lest they become vermin. However I do not like to see pointless death.

 

[skwerl]

you think someone's controlling numbers by running them over?

 

[ianrauk]

If I ever catch the fox who bloody craps on my lawn every night, it will an ex-fox....

 

[skwerl]

If I ever catch the fox who bloody craps on my lawn every night, it will an ex-fox....

maybe it's the same one that craps on mine. he's a busy chap

 

[hackbike 666]

He's gotta crap somewhere pal.

 

[skwerl]

He's gotta crap somewhere pal.

well, he could try next door.

the lawn I don't mind too much but foxes have a habit of shitting in very odd places - on the rim of a plant pot, on top of your wall, etc. Plus their shoot is really nasty stuff.

 

[thomas]

Saw a sad sight on my way in this morning.

Cycling along the Redford road & just about to pass Dreghorn Barracks there was a dead fox lying in the middle of the carriageway.

As a country boy I understand the need to control numbers lest they become vermin. However I do not like to see pointless death.

I'd rather the fox died, than the driver swerved and ran over a child or caused a serious accident.

I saw a squirrel get run over on my commute. Nothing much the driver could have done without risking the lives of those more important than the squirrel.

 

[jimboalee]

I'd rather the fox died, than the driver swerved and ran over a child or caused a serious accident.

I saw a squirrel get run over on my commute. Nothing much the driver could have done without risking the lives of those more important than the squirrel.

I am going to report you to the Tufty Club.

 

[Woz!]

Wow, my commute must be really rural - I see several squashed animals a week!
Mostly rabbits and squirrels. You get a timelapse view of the decomposition too - seeing them morning and evening until they disappear (I've no idea where they go - I wonder if they have a coroner that takes them away once everyone's had time to visit the corpse and pay their respects?).


Oh, and lots of dead magpies recently. Yay! I hate magpies - they're killing all the songbirds off.

 

[bianchi1]

I followed a car one that stopped and the elderly lady driver got out and gently picked up the flat carcass of a dead pheasant. she then layed it to rest on the grass verge where it could come to no more harm! It must have been dead for days! Around here there are a lot of shoots so the dumb birds get everywere. Its fun to watch drivers swerve to try and get out of their way as the birds are somehow drawn to them and bounce off the windscreen in a puff of feathers.

Did get some funny looks when i was putting a hit rabbit out of its missery once. Clad in lycra and using a cleated shoe.

 

[ufkacbln]

On the A35 inthe New Forest a few years ago......

At one point there id=s a dual carriage way and the sides of the road are high with a fence, deer leapt the fence and landed on car with fatal consequences for both deer and driver

 

[ufkacbln]

Waste not.....

For Fox A La Clarissa:


* Take one fox. Skin it and gut it.

* Hang the fox in running water for three days.

* Cook with garlic, onion and tomato, as if you were cooking rabbit the Italian way: lay in a dish, cover, and stew for about an hour and a half.

* I would probably cut the fox into halves, not quarters.

* Serve with chestnut pasta, and for wine: a good Falerian.

Clarissa Dixon Wright

 

[skudupnorth]

I am going to report you to the Tufty Club.

I nearly bust a side when i saw "The Tufty Club" Now you are showing your age !!!!!

At least no one can blame us lot for fluffy creature roadkill but i have run a human over when they popped out in between cars while i was on the cycle lane (bit of paint on the road ! ) Amazing stopping power was suddenly found when you hit a squishy person !

 

[HJ]

Saw a sad sight on my way in this morning.

Cycling along the Redford road & just about to pass Dreghorn Barracks there was a dead fox lying in the middle of the carriageway.

As a country boy I understand the need to control numbers lest they become vermin. However I do not like to see pointless death.

As an Ecologist I say; Density dependant, plenty more where that one came from...

...
Oh, and lots of dead magpies recently. Yay! I hate magpies - they're killing all the songbirds off.

What a load of B*ll*ck, magpies and songbirds are co-evolved, what is killing all the songbirds off is land use change and invasive alien predators (grey squirrels)...

 

[CharlieB]

This is turning into an interesting debate on ecology and fauna balance.
Where I live, we see increasing numbers of Red Kites, who essentially are lazy gits that would far rather feast on roadkill than hunt. They are now very much urban birds, in Buckinghamshire, at any rate.
Talking to better qualified people than myself where I work (an animal charity), the long term opinion is that the Red Kites will succeed over the Magpies as they are better equipped in size to support themselves.
Certainly out riding or even just sitting in the garden (after I've cleaned up the fox poo, that is), I see far more Red Kites than Magpies.