Just seen an Owl get killed on the road

[HaX]

Me and my girlfriend were travelling between Lincoln and Nottingham this evening, and on our travels a beautiful white Owl literally stepped in front of our car.

I got my girlfriend to turn back straight away to see if there was anything we could do to help it.

Anyway, as I was walking down the road to go and pick it up/get it off the road it stood up and started walking across the road - only to get hit by another car before I could get to it. I was so annoyed, especially as the car seemed to veer across to the wrong side of the road to hit it

Absolutely gutted. It was so close to survival. I went and had a look at it and it looked pretty mangled - no visible blood though. I assumed it was dead, but now I'm wondering if it was still alive and i could have done anything to help it

What an awful way to die, and such a shame bearing in mind it managed to get up after the first time.

 

[HaX]

don't feel bad, it was probably dead from the moment you hit it so there was nothing you could have done to help it. Most animals, after being hit, try to get off the road. Their bodies work on survival instincts the way ours do. After a massive trauma, endorphines would have been released, allowing the Owl enough strength to get off the road to where it'd feel safer. It would have gotten to the side of the road and died slowly from its injuries there rather then the quick death offered by the second car. The fact it didn't fly shows you it was in serious trouble. How many Owls do you see walking about?

True, that is what I told my girlfriend when she initially hit it. Owls are sharp witted animals with fast reactions, unlike pheasants which tend to step out in front of cars and wait to get run over.

There must have been something wrong with the poor thing in the first place to have made it just stand in the road.