Stephen Heintz & Kim Stanley Robinson
15 hours ago
Friday, November 18, 2005
How Do You Apologize?
This series hits me hard. I see more and more dead animals on the side of the road. It breaks my heart, and I cry each time I witness this. I saw a tiny chickadee disappear into the hood of an SUV the other morning. I can only remember hitting one racoon with my car. I cried and my son asked me what was wrong. A big dog ran out in front of my car on a dark Texas dirt road one night when I was in my 20's. I threw on my brakes to see if he was alive. He was, but one of his eyes was damaged, and he was jumping up to greet me. I rushed to the first front door for help. Thankfully, it was his house. How Do You Apologize? - A powerful and sometimes disturbing photos (and text) by Trish Carney. (no relation)
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3 comments:
When my best friend Sophia sees a dead animal in the middle of the road, she has been known to stop her car and pick up the creature and lay it to rest nearby- She does this so that other cars won't run over it again and also in hopes that the animal's owner might find and bury the animal. I think she is very brave. I wish I wasn't so squeamish! Poor little creatures, sometimes you can't avoid them because they run right into your car practically, but a lot of times people should drive more carefully.
On a happier note: I once had the fright of my life when a huge boar crossed the freeway in front of me coming back from Saint Marie aux Mines- luckily he crossed all 4 lanes and made it to the other side just as happy as if he had good sense :o)
Yes, that series by Trish Carney is so sad, so powerful and beautiful. I looked at every photo. For some reason, it's not a downer to me seeing these photos - she hasn't shown lots of gross blood and gore, but rather the bodies of the animals seem to be lying in state, a very respectful way of taking their photos. She hasn't sensationalized the subjects or her images.
I, too stop every single time I see a dead animal along the roadways. My husband supports me in this, which is good, because he's usually the driver and I can imagine someone else giving me a hard time about all the stops. I try to find a better place to lay the body, partly so no other cars will hit the body, but also because I want to honor and respect the spirit of each animal. I often put a little tobacco, or a silver coin next to the body - as an offering. And I tell it goodbye and I'm sorry.
I have only hit one animal in my life (that I know of) and that was a really big dog who, with 2 companions, ran across the freeway on a bridge (yikes) so there was no place I could swerve to and I hit it. My son and I stopped, moved the dog to the side of the freeway and stayed with it until it died. I talked to him and helf his huge head the whole time (about 20 minutes) Fortunately the dog had a tag with it's phone number, so we called the family and they came to get their dog while we waited. It was SO sad, I felt very badly, and we were both totally shaken by the experience.
Man's inhumanity to man is nothing compared to what we allow to happen with animals. I believe we will have a lot to answer for someday in their regard. Even for those of us who are carnivores, there is a responsible and compassionate way to deal with the sacrifice they make on our behalf. Something as simple as never wasting a morsel of food is a beginning.
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