It concerns me though that so many people are prepared to dispatch the likes of deer and worse still dogs at the side of the road with no vet training or prior medic experience.
Just as well I havent followed those rules of thinking when dealing with similar human casualties!!!!!
Humans survive with intestines out, animals do as well, but leave that decision up to those that know please eh? Particularly where family domesticated pets, covered by insurance and sadly therefore more likely to get the best (and expensive) treatment are involved.
Many deer can be rehabilitated after RTA's and there are many voluntary organisations, aside from the SSPCA / RSPCA that have the neccessary facilities and experience to do so and will come out at all hours given the chance.
Here in North East Iowa, we have a deer/vehicle accident every day or two within 50 miles of me - there are that many deer running around, even after the annual fall deer hunting season. So very few people try or even think about ... saving ... an injured deer. Less so a free-roaming dog on the road or any of the smaller animals.
Even the local Humane Societies gave up trying to save any. They just don't have the time/resources to do so. Plus their "mental attitude" has shifted from that of their national leader -- who equates a boy to a dog to a rat! When she declared that a few years ago, she lost many many converts to her cause!
And if a dog is free-roaming on the road, then it is the fault of the OWNER of that dog. It is THEIR responsibility to control THEIR animal. The local courts and police treat it just like a farm animal wandering onto the road and getting hit - the farmer's fault. Plus the insurance companies see it the same way. Whomever owns that animal that was out on the road and got hit is responsible for any/all expenses incurred by the driver of the vehicle. The only exception is natural wildlife - where the State is not responsible for their actions.
But that has not stopped a number of people from filing lawsuits and trying to get the cops to arrest people who ended up hitting their dog while it was free-ranging on the road - especially if the person who ended up hitting it did not stop to try to find/inform the owner. Those people have been very surprised when they ended up getting ticketed for allowing their dog to run around uncontrolled, and also got the bill for the repair of the damaged vehicles.
If YOU wish to try and save/rehabilitate an animal that has been injured, then please do. But don't expect anybody else to pay for it. And if you want to equate that animal life to human life, that is your choice. But few others believe that - other than some hard-core vegetarians.
Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.
Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands