If you've ever lost your pet to the road, or driven by the near daily new corpses of dead cats along the sides of the highway, you may have wondered - how did they get there? Pulled to the side, gone but saved from becoming a pile of blood and fur and bait for unfortunate birds.
Its not the people who hit them. Pretty much ever.
Its me. And people like me. People who care enough to stop, on the way to work or in the middle of errands, to cradle this broken creature out of the reach of more voracious tires, and make sure that even though they cannot be saved their family has a chance to know what happened to them and bury them in one piece. People who have to wipe the fresh blood off their hands, shaking, and take the least distressing picture they can to post on local lost pet or neighborhood groups that they are gone, where they are, and you can contact me if you need to confirm.
When I am lucky, I get to deal in life and rescue a stray cat or lost dog from the highway instead. I've done that a lot. But there's always another dead cat. Sometimes dog, hair still fluffy and shiny. And you know what the common denominator is, nearly every single time I do hear from the owner?
They were outdoor cats or off-leash dogs. Almost always.
"Oh hes been fine off leash for years," well he was getting older.
"My cat just needs to be outside to be happy," well I pulled their damp, bloody fur away from the pavement and their spirits didnt seem high.
"Its always been ok before," that was due to chance and luck and skill and speed that even a single afternoon nap or bad day or speeding car can take away.
I could give you the statistics on the number of birds killed by cats in the US a year (over TWO BILLION, many endangered). I could give you the info on the way a single off-leash dog attack can traumatize even the best working dog for years, can take away people's service animals or turn their kids friendly pet to extreme reactive bombs. I could point out that the average lifespans of these animals are cut in half, that theyre at a hugely increased risk of disease and parasites, that they can CAUSE vehicular accidents (no one wants to hit Lassie), that they decimate other local wildlife.
But if none of that has ever made it click for you before that your dog can be just as happy on a long lead, or your cat inside with some levels to jump on and a tower, then let this be the thing that gets through to you:
The end of the line for your free roaming dog or cat is being crushed under oncoming traffic, by someone who will just keep driving. If theyre unlucky, death wont be instant - it will be painful and terrifying, far away from the people theyd look to for comfort. Their blood will pool on the pavement and dry in the afternoon sun, and only the rare few willing to shepard them to dignity in death will even stop and take pity.
I am tired of finding your mistakes and refusal to parent that which needs you to step up, littered on the highway. There is already so much grief in this world that is unavoidable, or at least could be in a better system, and I know you really truly do love them and thats WHY you've been doing what you think is best. But the data says that your animals free roaming are the surest way to hurt them, and to risk the lives of so many around them. And you have the choice, today, to decide if you want this end for them or a long and happy life.
They trusted you to make the decisions they didnt know better about. Stop. Letting. Them. Down. And to the very very few who didn't choose this as an option for them, whose beloved animals did escape instead of being willingly and repeatedly let loose, none deserve this but especially those and I send unending sympathy.
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