Road Kill

August 31, 2007

It's not an uncommon sight, to see poor (sometimes) little animals dead on the roadside.

The other night, we were driving along and the guy in front of me swerved to avoid something. It was too dark to see what it was from a distance, but I decided to avoid that something as well, just in case. It's a good thing I did because it turned out to be a skunk the size of a baby bear, lying peacefully on its side, in the middle of my lane.

It seemed to be quite intact and as we drove past, my sister commented on how there was no smell. And then it hit us like a brick wall. The horrid smell of skunk filled our car, assaulted our nostrils and burned our lungs. We drove as fast as we could to air out the car, but apparently the guy in front of me who had just enough brains to avoid rolling over the dead animal didn't have enough sense to drive just a little faster to escape the smell.

Today, two days later, we drove down the same road. The dead animal still lies there. Fortunately, the odor has dissipated. What happens to those dead animals? Does someone just drive around looking for carcasses to pick up or does someone have to call a carcass collector? Anyone know?