Road kills

Dear SG,

It’s pretty common to find road kills here in New Zealand. With the wilderness surrounding the land, it’s only natural that creatures of the land wouldn’t have known how to cross a road properly. It’s really sad to see carcasses of birds and animals lying on the road being trampled by all the passing vehicles. It’s worst when I am the one doing the driving and there is no way for me to avoid running over the bodies without endangering my passengers and the other cars.

Till date, we have witnessed a pet dog being hit by a car; many birds flatten on the road; possums and rabbits with crashed bodies, and stains on the roads that could only be made from the reminds of unknown animals knock down by a moving vehicle.

Only once, it was safe enough to stop the car and move the body of a rabbit from the road. The whole body was intact but it’s bleeding from the mouth and it was already dead. We suspect it was hit not too long ago. Andrew moved it to the grass patch before other vehicle comes along and crashes the body.

Now, whenever I see a road kill on the road, I chant a little prayer for them. It may not help them much but it's all that I can do.

with love from NZ,
J

Spot the differences:
In Singapore, the road are always clear of any rubbish because our hardworking road cleaners will regularly sweep the road with a broom or drive a big truck that sweeps and suck up all the trash.

In Auckland, the road get washed naturally by the rain, swept by the strong wind and dried by the sun. Us, Singaporean should really stop taking our cleaning crews for granted.

In Singapore there is no road kill. We do get the occasional pets that was run over by a car but it's pretty rare to see their bodies still on the road the next day.

In Auckland it's common to see road kills. A driver may try to avoid the animal but they can only do so when they will not endanger themselves or the others on the road.