The Associated Press hit a new low in reporting on an animal-related issue from a completely anthropocentric point of view. Here’s how they reported on a recent tragedy involving a group of migratory animals who dared to venture across a deadly strip of pavement created exclusively for automobiles:
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/3-vehicles-hit-herd-of-elk-on-Hwy-12-near-Satsop-240096581.html
SATSOP, Wash. – Three vehicles crashed into a large herd of elk crossing Highway 12 Monday night in Grays Harbor County at Satsop.
State troopers responded to the scene at about 9 p.m. after receiving a report of multiple collisions with an elk herd.
The Washington State Patrol says no drivers were injured in the crashes, but their vehicles didn’t fare so well.
A 2000 Dodge Dakota pickup was totaled in the crash. A 1997 Ford pickup and a 2001 Ford Expedition were damaged and had to be towed away.
Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved
_____________
And that’s it. That’s the entire extent of the article. Absolutely no mention of how well the elk herd fared.
I saw an elk get hit in the highway on Christmas night a few years back. The SUV that struck her had just passed me and somehow did not see the elk standing squarely in the middle of the road. The elk was sent into the air and landed on the opposite side of the road. No one in the vehicle was hurt, but I’m sure the owner was cursing the poor animal he ran into because she dented his car.
To the press, non-humans don’t even rate a mention, except perhaps as a “road hazard.”
On that note, here’s something I wrote back in April, 2012:
Road Hazard?
Driving to work early the other morning, I came within inches of hitting a bull elk who decided, at the last minute, to run across the highway right in front of me. Fortunately no one else was on that lonely stretch of road at the time, for if I hadn’t stomped on the brakes and cranked the wheel to the left, we would probably both be dead. I saw up close and personal how hitting an animal as large as that could do lethal damage. But the experience did not change my attitude on whether migratory wildlife should be considered a road hazard.
There’s no doubting the fact that we humans—in our full metal jacketed projectiles, lumbering headlong 60 mph through the former wilderness—are the real hazards. We’re the ones breaking nature’s rules by inventing machines that can go so fast they can put an end to anyone they run into. But, we drive like we’re saying, “We have important places to go—everyone else beware or be damned! No lowly animal better get in our way!”
If this incident had proven fatal for us, I would have wanted my epitaph to read: “I’m sorry beautiful creature. There’s nowhere I had to be that was worth the risk of ending your precious life.”
Exposing the Big Game 
When I lived in Maine for 7 years, it was the same stupid reporting. They had bumpers stickers, saying:”Break for Moose–it could save your life.” Nothing, no concern for the poor animals, ofcourse. What idiots.
My husband hit a deer a few months ago returning home over the mountain from Las Vegas at night. The animal suddenly leapt onto the roadway and was struck and instantly killed. The front of the car was nearly demolished. My husband was very shook up and pulled to the side of the dark road. The deer lay in the median and no one stopped of course they sped around the body. Richard phoned me and called the troopers. The deer was dispatched into a road kill ckean-up truck like so much garbage. My husband was very upset and so was I. He had never hit an animal before. The next morning we could see the imprint of the dee
Right, it’s the idea that they are thrown away like so much garbage or left along the side of the road day after day that bothers me. No respect for the victim. The one and only time I stumbled onto Duck Dynasty they were joking about road kill in degrading and disrespectful way.
It is most dreadfully amazing to me how people can disregard the death of an animal and become hysterical if the dead body on the road is a human.
Not that I would want to see a human killed on the road but you know what I mean…
Yes, I know exactly what you mean. If it were a human, the highway would be shut down for hours, the worldwide media would bombard us with the news and, if it were in Montana (where the average speed limit is 70 and people routinely drive 10 over that), a cross would be erected to remind people to slow down a bit. But for non-human, nothing. I would like to see crosses put up wherever animals are hit, to remind people how deadly automobiles are.
We could see the imprint of the deer on the hood-even where it’s leg had flown over the hood on impact. No one gave that animal a second thought. Except us. A friend of ours hit a wild horse one night and the horse’s head came through the windshield right into her face. A very grotesque experience and most distressing for the animals.
On the roadways,there is no complaining of deer and elk populations,even for the hunters.People won’t slow down for animals…they wont even slow down for children going to school.Behind the wheel to many have a completely differant personality,we’re suddenly killers,for anyone that dares cross our path.
Yep, it’s amazing how that different personality comes out when some people get behind the wheel.