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Ran Over a Chicken
I feel so guilty. I was driving to work this morning on a 2 lane road avoiding the highway, and a chicken darted in front of my car. I had 2 choices - hit the chicken, or swerve and potentially run off the road and wreck my car. As I was driving I'm looking around at where I can swerve, which is either into the other lane and oncoming traffic, or into a ditch on the side of the road.....both pretty horrible options.
I saw the chicken about 20 feet ahead but it was pecking at the ground on the side of the road so I thought nothing of it. As I was about 10 feet away, out it darts and I'm going 60 mph. The was a bonk, a bunch of feathers flew in the air, and I saw it in the road behind me. I'm a bit traumatized. I know it's just a chicken and hitting it was a MUCH better option than wrecking my car, but I feel bad.
Seriously....WHY did the chicken cross the road? 
Re: Ran Over a Chicken
eek, that's horrible! Sorry you had to experience that! What a coincidence, yesterday, we saw a dead chicken in the middle of the freeway. I was so surprised to see it in the middle of the road here in LA, I was like, "what was that chicken doing in the middle of the road?"
and the inevitable came to mind: ".... it was trying to get to the other side." buh-rhump-bum. Thank you, thank you, I'm here weekends.
Sorry, not trying to joke about your situation - I couldn't help it yesterday. Mine was already dead so I didn't feel bad joking - but I could totally see how you would be traumatized. I've never killed anything driving, but when you get close to it, it's harrowing!
When I read this post title I knew it had to be because it actually happened.
Even though it's "just" a chicken, I totally empathize with feeling bad and a little traumatized. That said, when it comes down to a choice between your life -- or the lives of others in oncoming vehicles -- and a chicken, it's crystal clear that you made the right choice. Like you said, you were going 60 mph and there was so little time to (1) process what was happening; (2) assess your options; and (3) react. Had you swerved into the ditch or into oncoming traffic and injured yourself or others, you would be regretting that decision much more than the one you made.
Also, the chicken was busy having a snack, never saw you coming, and was likely dead upon impact -- overall, not a bad way to go. You did the right thing, girl!
Sorry Amy - that sucks!
FWIW I think you did the right thing!
Married Bio
Lisa, you should have heard the laughter on the phone when I told MH. he was dying too. He now wants to get a "Chicken Killer" sticker for my car. He thinks it's hilarious. While I find myself chuckling a little, I felt horrible. It came up for me this afternoon while playing Farmville and I felt traumatized all over again and had to share with my nesties.
And I'm dying again...I'm sorry, I do know it was probably awful, but it's just too funny! I'm just imagining you playing Farmville, collecting eggs from your chickens and tearing up, lmao!
LMAO too!!
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
Somehow now I don't feel as guilty for laughing.
Amy, I hope you're feeling better about this. I don't remember who told me this but they said that if you're ever in a situation like this (with any animal), your safety and the safety of other drivers around you is the much more important than the animal's life so it's best to just plow through and continue driving. I know, it's hard to do when you're caught in that situation but don't feel too guilty about it.
When we were driving home once, these two little dogs just darted out into the street. One was chasing the other one and I closed my eyes because I knew we were going to hit it. When I heard the 'thud', I thought for sure that we had run the poor thing over but John actually saw the dog bounce off and continue running off like nothing had ever happened.
I guess we and that dog were lucky that time!
You know, even though I'm laughing about all of this, I do totally agree with this. I grew up in a rural area - lots of squirrels, racoons, stray dogs and the occasional deer to run into. My mother drilled it into me time and time again that you NEVER, EVER swerve. It doesn't matter how much it sucks to know you're going to run over a poor little animal, but it's way too dangerous to swerve around it, for both yourself and other drivers around you (and we lived on a mountain, so it was doubly dangerous on the curving roads!). You definitely did the right thing!
My poor sister once ran over someone's pet cat because she would have had to swerve into oncoming traffic to miss it - my sis was devastated, poor thing, and rushed it to the vet, but it was beyond saving. Then she had to find the owners and tell them what happened, crying the whole time. So sucky. I know hitting a chicken was awful, but it really could have been much worse.
As traumatized as I was, I was laughing when MH started joking about it. And TOTALLY laughed at myself when I thought about it playing Farmville.
I saw the carnage coming home too....he was pretty flat after being out there for 10 hours.
A part of me always cringes when it comes times to 'harvest' the animals because it just seems so weird and morbid to have that sickle hovering over the animals.
Yeah but have you noticed that none of them involve actually hurting the animals? Like the pigs - I thought for sure that would be about bacon. But nope! "Collect truffles."
I know that it's a gross feeling to run over a chicken, but how ofter do you get to say that?
I bet this will be the only time in my life that I will read the post headline "Ran Over a Chicken"
Cerclage placed @ 21w6d due to CI (IC)