Road Incidents
It's been a while since I've made a post!
Life was a little crazy for a short time, Reality is Kids can be full on, My daughters been bullied severely recently requiring my time and support. We got a wallaby! that was a amazing time in our household, but sadly he passed away. Which left our family heartbroken. We miss his little Character every day.
Anyway, I'm back, I'm busy & I'm back online! We are here to talk today about Roadkill, motor vehicle incidents with our wildlife.
We tend to forget how crazy & often animals get hurt onroads. I'm not just talking about cats in suburbia. I'm located in Geelong, Vic. It's extremely normal for me to spot cats every day squashed on the road, its insanely sad to see. But reality is it is very normal. I have come across many animals that haven't been called in, hit on streets in my area. Possums, Kangaroo's & birds. It feels endless seeing these animals injured. I know I'm not the first person to spot the animals, some could have been there for hours in pain.
It's truly not hard to move the animal off the road, PLEASE MOVE THE ANIMAL OFF THE ROAD. Even better to take the animal to the veterinary closest, Additionally call your local rescue so someone can go to the animals aid.
Teach your children how to care & have empathy. Teach them to be considerate of the world us adults have slowly been destroying. Hard truth. I've collected animals with my children in the car, we pullover, Hazards on, mum puts her vest on and gloves, get a donated pillowcase out and wrap the animal up, to take to the vet. We keep a kit in all our cars, plenty of pillowcases, A cat carrier, blanket & box. These items assist with live and deceased animals.
I didn't realise how intense the whole of Victoria is struggling with deceased animals until I started rescuing. My brain now scans roads and especially country roads for wildlife. We did a adventure & small 4x4 adventure weekend just gone. Our trip took us through Bacchus marsh to lerderderg, We ended up in Trentham, and then we started to head back from there. We jumped on a main Rd and came back. On the way back I decided to count all the animals hit… and stayed vigilant, watching for markings etc.
I counted 3 wombats, 5 foxes, 3 possums, 2 wallabys & a massive 35 ( yes I said THIRTY-FIVE) Kangaroo's. Just on the roadside. With Kangaroo's being shot by the hundred thousand in Victoria alone. It's terrifying to see such a beautiful, sweet & famous animal being killed in the hundreds on our roads daily. Some of the bouncing joys were juvenile and some small enough to be not long out of pouch or possibly were thrown from mums pouch on impact. I truly wish more people took the care and got to know kangaroo's further. But how do we teach people empathy? How do we encourage adults to care about these remarkable animals?
Please take more care on our roads. If your located in Victoria id love to hear about your area, your experience with our wildlife!
As Rescuers we know it can be unexpected and extremely accidental to hit our wildlife. But please don't leave them in the middle of the road. Bigger bonus if you move them completely away from the road, having to spray paint an animal reduces the natural decomposition & can harm other animals who intend to eat what is left. Pouch checks are necessary. But it is not always necessary to leave the animals on roadside, I've seen plenty of incidents where the animals been left within a metre of the road, with 6+ metres to a fence line.
Generalised image, to avoid distressing imagery.