Seeing a dead animal

[holyzombiejesus]

I guess I should spoiler bits in case people find it upsetting. There's nothing gorey though.

Anyway, I was on a visit at work today and cycled past a

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dead cat in the gutter

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. Later on I saw a recently

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dead magpie

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on the verge by the sandwich shop. Each time, it gave me such a visceral feeling of, I dunno, fear. Like I immediately had to look away and felt all weird. Is this a normal reaction to seeing dead animals? I don't mind splattered pigeons or those skinned beheaded pigs that

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working class men

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carry in to butchers but an intact dead animal always freaks me out a bit. Saw a

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dead fox

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under a big pile of leaves in Harpurhey a few weeks back and I had to get off my back and go for a sit down. That picture of several dead mice caught in the single mouse trap that got posted on here used to have the same affect on me, to the extent that I would re-post it to try and toughen myself up. If it is a common reaction, I can't work out why we'd have it or what purpose it served way back when.

[Icehaven]

There was a dead badger on the pavement outside my flat last year, which was unexpected as this is a really built up area and it's a main road, which is presumably what did for it as it looked like it had been hit and just managed to drag itself off the road (or whoever hit it moved it). I had to walk past it on my way to work and I could barely look at it for similar reasons to those you describe, it's a visceral fear of death I suppose.

[ollyboro]

Eric Burdon checks pulse.

[bgmnts]

I usually see a dead bird once a week, on the road or pavement.

Makes me pretty sad, every single time.

[BlodwynPig]

Saw a lovely rabbit hopping over the road today. On my way back noticed a curled up thing by the kerbside.. Yup, dead rabbit :(((((((((

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

* Loudon Wainwright The Third enters thread, ready to give a sing song*

[shiftwork2]

More dead road wildlife than usual over these past months.  Unusual if I don't see a deer.  A magnificent creature basically left to rot or until the road sweepers get to it.

They've retreated now the humans are on the rise again.

[BlodwynPig]

More dead road wildlife than usual over these past months.  Unusual if I don't see a deer.  A magnificent creature basically left to rot or until the road sweepers get to it.

They've retreated now the humans are on the rise again.

yup, a fucking disgrace, fucking fucking disgrace...heading over the rainbow bridge myself soon

[thenoise]

Little fledgeling lying on our driveway. Poor  thing never got to use its tiny wings. We buried him in the herbaceous border, seemed the least we could do.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Dead headless pigeon on the balcony of my flat/
In Tallinn, Estonia, visiting landlady didn't like the look of that/
In late June evening sunshine, I scooped up the deceased member of the family columbidae/
And without much ceremony chucked the lifeless and bonceless body away/
Over the edge of the balcony; I heard the resounding ' thud.'/
And hoped Estonia Tuvi had lived a life that was good.

( Based on true events, Tallinn, Estonia June 2017. )

[popcorn]

Photographed in Brighton Marina last year

[Twit 2]

Remember that object we saw, dear soul,
In the sweetness of a summer morn:
At a bend of the path a loathsome carrion
On a bed with pebbles strewn,

With legs raised like a lustful woman,
Burning and sweating poisons,
It spread open, nonchalant and scornful,
Its belly, ripe with exhalations.

The sun shone onto the rotting heap,
As if to bring it to the boil,
And tender a hundredfold to vast Nature
All that together she had joined;

And the sky watched that superb carcass
Like a flower blossom out.
The stench was so strong that on the grass
You thought you would pass out.

Flies hummed upon the putrid belly,
Whence larvae in black battalions spread
And like a heavy liquid flowed
Along the tatters deliquescing.

All together it unfurled, and rose like a wave
And bubbling it sprang forth;
One might have believed that, with a faint breath filled,
The body, multiplying, lived.

And this world gave out a strange music
Like of running water and of wind,
Or of grain in a winnow
Rhythmically shaken and tossed.

Form was erased and all but a vision,
A sketch slow to take shape
On a forgotten canvas, which the artist finishes
From memory alone.

Behind the rocks a fretting bitch
Looked at us with fierce mien
Anxious to retrieve from the corpse
A morsel that she had dropped.

Yet to this rot you shall be like,
To this horrid corruption,
Star of my eyes, sun of desire,
You, my angel and my passion!

Yes, such you shall be, you, queen of all graces,
After the last sacraments,
When you go beneath the grass and waxy flowers,
To mold among the skeletons.

Then, oh my beauty! You must tell the vermin,
As it eats you up with kisses,
That I have preserved the form and essence divine
Of my decayed loves.

[Poobum]

Saw a dead little finch today on the pavement, flies buzzing around its eyes. "Appleby, you've got flies in your eyes." I thought. It looked very restful.

[Gurke and Hare]

If it is a common reaction, I can't work out why we'd have it or what purpose it served way back when.

Hygiene? When we lived in small tribal villages, we probably wouldn't have wanted to leave dead animals near the food store.

[popcorn]

Hygiene? When we lived in small tribal villages, we probably wouldn't have wanted to leave dead animals near the food store.

Are you kidding? IN the store more like! Delicious!

[Mr_Simnock]

I usually see a dead bird once a week, on the road or pavement.

Makes me pretty sad, every single time.

you are Peter Sutcliffe and I claim my five pounds

[holyzombiejesus]

Hygiene? When we lived in small tribal villages, we probably wouldn't have wanted to leave dead animals near the food store.

I dunno. I think food stores have often had pre-butchered dead animals in them.

[Sin Agog]

I sometimes think vegans and vegetarians like me actually have even less exposure to certain aspects of nature in a weird way.  We'll probably be even more likely to freak if a rat suddenly appears in our kitchen than someone who's used to slabs of meat on their plate on the reg. 

[pancreas]

If I understand correctly from the television, one is supposed to find a stick and poke the carcass. Perhaps that would help.

If that doesn't work you could proceed to beat it with the stick until the eyes come out. Perhaps that would help more.

[Cuntbeaks]

There's a patch of woods close to me that both my son and I have, independently, decided has a cursed atmosphere. Nothing terrifying, but a pervasive unsettling something.

Anyway, a few weeks back i wanted to roadtest a new hammock and it was the closest place to do so. It was sunny and pleasant and I didn't need to venture in too deep. I must have only taken 5 steps into it when i nearly stood on a large, freshly dead bird of prey, a buzzard I think. It was right on the path and didn't look to have been mauled or anything. It looked as if it hadonly been there for a few hours.

Freaked me out a bit and definitely added to the lore of the place.

[bgmnts]

I sometimes think vegans and vegetarians like me actually have even less exposure to certain aspects of nature in a weird way.  We'll probably be even more likely to freak if a rat suddenly appears in our kitchen than someone who's used to slabs of meat on their plate on the reg.

You think so? I'm the exact opposite. I get quite excited if I see a rat or spider or whatever.

[Poobum]

Rat's are lovely, you should welcome them with healthy snacks, and integrate them into your household until you are eventually subsumed by a writhing mass of incest born ratty kittens.

[touchingcloth]

I usually see a dead bird once a week, on the road or pavement.

Makes me pretty sad, every single time.

We have sparrows nesting in our roof void, and their young are fledging at the moment. Most days there's at least one which has failed to fledge and ended up dead on the patio, but every now and then one will just injure rather than kill itself on a bad landing.

Every time I find one hobbling around with a gammy leg or wing I'll make them comfortable in a lined box, and put them somewhere out of reach of predators. They're usually dead within a couple of hours, which I don't love, but if they perk up a bit I'll use tweezers to give them some tiny insects (you're supposed to do that to get fluids to them as they're too young to drink properly without drowning), but those ones invariably die within 24 hours, and those ones hit me quite hard.

I had one recently which hadn't died after 24 hours, and rather than keeping them shut inside you're supposed to let them be somewhere they can hear and call to other birds of their kind so they have the best chance possible of being reintroduced, which I did and the little thing was chirping away and still taking insects from my tweezers each time I offered them, and when they survived into day 3 I took the next step of placing them outside somewhere safe but where they're able forage for their own food and have another go at flying, but when I checked on it an hour later it was lifeless on the ground and covered in ants, and that one got me quite badly, and I'm still getting bouts of sadness thinking about the little thing I fed for a couple of days.

I feel like Bill Murray trying to save that tramp in Groundhog Day.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Seems a fair way to feel

Cunts dead, that sucks

[touchingcloth]

Thing is, it'd probably be more humane just to stomp the poor things into the terrace, and I can't help but feel like I'm only prolonging their suffering for my own peace of mind, and my own sense of glory if one ever managed to fly. But they're never going to fly. Is it better to have had 3 days of insects on tap than to be smushed into the paving in an instant? I don't know.

[bgmnts]

Nah its like palliative care, it's a good thing.

It's probably even more important for you as it is for them.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Thing is, it'd probably be more humane just to stomp the poor things into the terrace, and I can't help but feel like I'm only prolonging their suffering for my own peace of mind, and my own sense of glory if one ever managed to fly. But they're never going to fly. Is it better to have had 3 days of insects on tap than to be smushed into the paving in an instant? I don't know.

waiting for a cat to try and turn them inside out more like.

[Sin Agog]

Even if it had lived, your self-loathing brother Jud would probably only have killed it to feel a tiny modicum of power before he ends up spending the rest of his life working down a mine.

[Cloud]

I saw a dead baby seagull on Market St.  And then a few hours later saw a Facebook post in the local group saying "there's a baby seagull on Market St that sounds like it's in pain, I didn't have time to stop, can someone help?"
Thought better of responding.

[touchingcloth]

waiting for a cat to try and turn them inside out more like.

My cat brings them in if I don't get to them first, so it's partly guilt at owning a cunt bird killer.