You Hit an Animal and Then What??

I stop. I look for a name tag. If there is, I go to the owner. If there is none, I proceed to the nearest veterinary clinic with the animal on the assumption that it is most likely the vet who takes care of the animal. If the animal isn't their patient, then it becomes up to me to either pay to have the animal treated and adopt it or pay to have it euthanized.

Should you hit an animal, and the animal is still alive then you take it to the vet, you are normally not charged the fees. The pet will be scanned for a micro chip (here is where it's important to get your pet chipped) and hopefully the owner will be found. IF the pet is not chipped they will take care of the medical needs and find a charity or shelter that will take on the costs of the animal's injuries or they will sponsor the animal themselves. In Dallas for more severe cases it became a news story and tons of people donated and often times the owner and pet were reunited. Honestly, were it me - the animal is going to the vet, in my car unless my son is in the car with me - then it gets questionable. I have two dogs and a 5y/o and if the animal looks like a stray I may have to call animal control and have them deal with it since I can not bring something like Kennel Cough or Rabies home eventhough my dogs are up to date. This is where it gets scary. My car, I can pay to have detailed and Lysol the bujesses out of it, but I can not do that with my kid IN the car. I hope my perspective helps you some.

Like Riley said, you are best off trying to call animal control and let them handle it rather than try to move the animal yourself - if it's injured and in pain, you could end up getting bit. Whenever I've worked in either general practice or emergency, we've had people bring in injured animals all the time - they were designated "Good Samaritans" and not responsible financially for the animal's care if they were not the owners or did not want to assume ownership. If there were no ID tags, we would try to scan for a microchip. If an owner could be identified, we would try to contact them. If we couldn't get a hold of one, we still performed very basic emergency stabilization care - IV fluids, pain meds, wound care, etc. If the pet could be stabilized to the point where it no longer had to be in the hospital (and an owner still had not been found), then we would contact animal control and transfer it to them. If it was apparent that the animal had severe injuries that would require surgery and more expensive care to treat, and/or appeared that they were not going to make it, we would make the decision that the most humane thing would be to euthanize. We hated the idea that we could be euthanizing someone's pet without the owner knowing what was going on, but we also didn't want to see the pet suffer needlessly. We figure too that the owner would not want the pet to suffer either.

Once in a while, if an owner could not be found, but the injuries were minor or fixable, and the dog or cat had a particularly good temperment, one of the employees would end up adopting it and taking it home. One place I worked at had a really sweet young lab mix with no ID come in after it had been hit by a car - it had a fractured front leg that needed surgery to stabilize but otherwise was fine and healthy. One of the techs wanted to take her home if an owner was not found. We had a boarded surgeon on staff who agreed to repair the leg at a greatly reduced cost and then the employee would pay off the balance. The dog stayed with us 10 days total to give its owner a chance to come forward but nobody did (we placed ads too and notified the other clinics and shelters in the area). So doggy got the care she needed and found a new home.

My mom hit a dog. She stopped and got out. The dog was not dead, but ran off into someone's yard. She knocked on the door and told them. The daughter started screaming at her, but honestly, the dog was off leash and ran out into the road at dusk. It was hard to see it.

Had the dog not run off, I'd call call animal control and have them come out.

Our dog was hit when I was 15. We were at fault because he ran off and we couldn't catch him. It was very sad, but I wish someone had read his collar and tried to call us or called animal control or something. The next day the neighbor asked my mom if we had a white dog because she saw one and sure enough it was him. He was long dead by then. I hope he died quickly.

I hit a dog once, ran out in the street dodge the car in front of me, if had just continued back the other way it would have been fine. But, it panicked and ran right into my car. I couldn't stop because I was on a highway and it wasn't safe. I did, turn around as soon as I could and tried to find it, but never did.
I probably would have tried to take it to the vet.
I remember going to my boyfriends house (now my husband) and bawling. It was the first time he had ever seen me cry and we had been dating like two years, I think he thought someone died. :)

If I hit an animal, I would stop. i would call the non-emergency police number as the fire department/police department won't come for an animal, they would send animal control.

If the animal is unleashed - YOU will NOT be responsible for the bills. At least here in VA, you aren't. If the dog is leashed and you hit him/her - then yes. But running loose - you are not held responsible and you should NOT be.

If it happens, call the police. Don't leave.

I never hit an animal, but someone hit my dog once. It was about 13 years ago. My little dog ran out of the yard when I had my back turned, a car hit her and the car sped off. The car behind that guy saw what happened, wrote his plate number down and stopped to help me. He gave me the plate number of the guy that hit my dog. Long story short, the vet bills were about 2,000 dollars, my dog broke her hip in 3 places but she survived and did walk again. The police would not do anything about it because it technically was my fault because I did not have my dog leashed at the time. It was a horrible experience for me and I learned a valuable lesson. From that day on, I always had my dog on a leash no matter what. It really is the responsibility of the dog owner to keep their pet safe. I hope I never hit an animal. But I would always stop and try to help.

I am not sure what I would do if I hit a dog or cat, but I do know what I would do if I hit a deer. I know that in Wyoming (where I live) you can call the game and fish and tell them you hit a deer. They will issue you a tag so that you can take the meat home for a small fee (like $2), this will allow you to take it to a meat processing place and not have them question where you harvested the meat. If you don't have that tag in Wyoming and try and have someone process the meat for you, you can be prosecuted for poaching. I think that they also do that for any big game (deer, antelope, elk, moose.)

*edited to add: I know that if you don't want it either, the game and fish will take it and have it processed and give it to someone who can use it.

tell you what i WOULDN'T do - i wouldn't try to walk back up the highway to catch it. there was a kitten on the highway outside my work this summer, poor little thing was in the middle of an 8 lane highway with 4 foot high concrete barriers. it just walked up and down the middle shoulder. we watched it for awhile and called animal control...they said they couldn't do anything because it's so potentially dangerous for the PEOPLE involved. so some girls from a different department went out to the highway to try to catch it. it was so freaked out it ran straight out into traffic and got creamed.

sorry if it makes me callous...but DUUUH.

sorry. bad story i know. normally if the traffic is not bad and it's not a major highway, yes, call animal control.

I've never done it either, I think I'd call the highway patrol tho if I did.

When I worked in a regular veterinary practice as well as emergency, we had people bring in animals they found or hit. I don't ever recall extracting money out of them.

When I came upon a cat that was hit two years ago, I got out and brought it to the emergency clinic. They ended up putting it down.

I called the police and they had animal control come out.