|   Death on the Trail!!!! | shabadu
Nov 27, 2001 12:21 PM | | From NY Times Magazine this past sunday...The Ethicist by Randy Cohen.
When I'm mountain biking I sometimes find a small animal (e.g., snake or lizard) that was accidentally injured by another biker or hiker and appears to be suffering. I want to help, but I am far from the nearest veterinarian. Usually I move the creature off the trail and hope it will live, but I wonder about putting it out of it's misery. What should I do next time? S.S., California
Dr. Rebecca Campbell, a veterinarian, shares your view of the situation, noting a seriously injured small animal "will almost certainly die an agonizing death by starvation, dehydration or predation. The best thing to do is to get the creature to a vet, but if thats not possible you should humanely kill a little creature like a snake or lizard found on a trail." Campbell suggests doing this quickly. "Breaking its neck is best, but he risks a snake bite if he tries that. Unfortunately a trail biker would probably have to crush its little head with a rock, unless he carries a machete in his pack."
The difficulty of this advice is that it asks an ordinary person to diagnose an injury, assess the chances of recovery and killa small creature, something even those who accept euthanasia in principle may find deeply disturbing in practice. And it leaves unanswered this question: How small is a small creature? Certainly if you found an injured person on the trail, you'd take extraordinary measures to render aid. Most of us value the the life of a human being, a creature with self-awareness and a sense of its past and future, more highly thatn that of a lizard. Yet, while you may be willing to euthanize a lizard, what about a fox, a cat, a dog?
That said, given the actual circumstances you've found yourself in, Campbell's recommendation, while stringent, is reasonable and humane. Where death is inevitable, minimizing suffering should be your first concern.
Am I the only person besides my mom, who brought this to my attention, laughing? In the thousands of miles I've ridden offroad I don't ever remember seeing an trailkill animal that was still alive, heck I've barely seen any dead ones. Besides the large, maggot-bloated raccoon I almost hit last week in Kettle Moraine and some snakes here and there, it was the annual Bananna Slug massacre in the trails around Coastal Norcal that ever elicited any thought whatsoever on the subject...and thats cause those things are so damn messy when you do hit them...they smear all over my nice knobby tires, perhaps I needed some slug clearing knobs similar to mud clearing?
I have actually moved a couple of the live ones out of the way at Skeggs, only cause I didn't want them messing up anyones downtubes.
Discuss.
-Joe |
| I could slug you but | JimC
Nov 27, 2001 12:30 PM | | there's enough out there already, Joe. I'm with you, there's no dying animal population, just slugs. Jim <-- stops to save the odd one |
| Better than what you ran over Sunday..... | Monte
Nov 27, 2001 1:06 PM | | PU!
Monte |
| May your border crossing be lon.... | JimC
Nov 27, 2001 1:13 PM | | just kidding Monte, 2.5 hours? eyow. I was having a good day until you had that great flashback on dogpoop. Jeez. yetch, that was u-glee. Jim <--holding nose |
| Hmm. Dog poop with antlers? | Cleavis Pin
Nov 27, 2001 2:03 PM | | nothing like that in AZ. I did see a giant centipede about that size on South Mountain one time. Scary lookin creechter. |
| close C-P...some sob doggie owner | JimC
Nov 27, 2001 2:15 PM | | lsft me a present pre-ride. Had to spend about 5 minutes scraping and removing the poop. Bastidges! Jim <--holds nose. |
| I saved an Alligator Lizard once... | Bonee
Nov 27, 2001 12:36 PM | | I was out on a ride and noticed a coke can in the brush with a tail sticking out of it. I stopped to take a closer look. I guess this 6 inch long alligator lizard was either looking for shelter or was attracted to the dried up syrup. His entire head was inside the can, but you could tell he was not happy about it and couldn't pull it out.
I've gotta say I was a bit stumped on what to do. I had no tools to cut the can open, I was afraid if I tried to pull him out I'd rip his head off, I figured a vet would laugh at me if I showed up with this thing, and I certainly didn't want to leave him to die a slow death.
I half thought of killing him, but...
I decided to try and pull him out first. When I picked up the can he immediately started squirming and I knew it would be tough to do this. I just kept tugging with low pressure, sort of just in between pulling too hard where his head will come off, and too soft where you are just hurting him but getting no where. Sort of when you are climbing a steep trail and if you spin to soft, you fall, if you spin to hard you loose traction.
Finally, after about 5 minutes, POP. He came out just fine. I was startled and he fell onto the trail a little dazed. I reached down and grabbed him by the tail to check on him and the liitle guy ejected his tail to get away. He ran back into the bushes with thoughts of regrowing that tail. He appeared just fine.
I crumpled up the can, threw it in my camelback, and finished the day off knowing I saved this little guys life and picked up some litter to boot. A small task, but I'm sure I got some good Karma in return. |
| That's awsome... | Sofa King Wee Todd Id
Nov 28, 2001 9:54 AM | | Hey Bonnee, that was a great story, and I know that had I been in your shoes I would've done the same thing. But here in Ontario, all we have are bears, and I just turn around and get the F**k outta there! People who hurt animals, or even chase them with their bikes, are idiots! |
| Remind me to never ... | Duncan!
Nov 27, 2001 1:05 PM | | go riding with Dr. Rebecca Campbell ... MEDIC!!! D. |
| Remind me to never ... | Duncan!
Nov 27, 2001 1:12 PM | | go riding with Dr. Rebecca Campbell ... MEDIC!!! D. |
| Hey Shabs... | Allroy
Nov 27, 2001 1:15 PM | | You gonna be at the fruita ft fest? STS and I are coming out and wondered if you wanted to revisit RIO's... bye the way I heard you have a nice new apartment with some girl? How's the bathroom floor?
BTW how's the bum leg doin'? |
| Yup, nope, I wish, puke-free and good. | shabadu
Nov 27, 2001 1:34 PM | | Thats, yup I should be at the FFTF. It happens about a week after Alta closes and we get kicked out of our ratholes so we all head south to Moab and Fruita...so unless anything bigger and better looms, I'll be there.
Nope I will never go to the Rio with you ever again.
I wish I was shacking up with a girl, I'm still chasing after the girly you probably don't remeber bumping into as we stumbled out of the Rio that fateful eve, but I am living in a nice house up in the mountains in the midst of tons of trails right out my door....for another week.
The bathroom in that place is still puke free which is good since my friend owns the house and the floor is nice faux-marble.
The bum leg is 100% and back to rallying at full power except I am honestly still a little spooked of the skatepark.
See you in the springtime in Fruita where the tequila flows without mixer!
-Joe |
| "Fruita where the tequila flows without mixer! " | screampint
Nov 27, 2001 3:12 PM | | As long as it's good enough to pass without mixers.
I heard about your ride on the curtain (tentative name) with Tigger. Sounded like fun. |
| No Sauza from a plastic jug? | shabadu
Nov 27, 2001 3:37 PM | | I got pretty well worked over by the Zion Curtain expedition, I wasn't expecting a 4-5 hour tour. If the weather cooperates, I'll be back through for a day or two on my way into Zion for my 5 month pow pow 'mission'. I want to hit POS, that sounded like fun but I was hurtin by the time we got all the way out there.
I have to add that we rode Joe's and Prime Cut with lights the night before the Curtain mission. That was some of the most fun I've ever had on a bike. I love that place. Huge thanks to all of you building and maintaining out there.
-Joe |
| What's the official date for the FFTF? | kristian
Nov 27, 2001 1:39 PM | | Without thinking, I did a bad thing and set the date of our wedding on May 4th...which means that I've been grounded the weekend/week prior to get everything ready (and so I don't pull a Slartibartfast...). If the FFTF is the last weekend in April, I'm screwed, but I'll be able to come if it's the second to the last weekend. |
| You're screwed... | screampint
Nov 27, 2001 3:07 PM | | It's ALWAYS the last weekend in April. That means it's the 25-28 for 2002. |
| Oh come on. | Jettstream
Nov 27, 2001 5:07 PM | | Just picture a weekend hangin with your buds, rocketing down Joe's Ridge and Zippety and popping air thru the Sea of Whoops, finally cleaning the entrance to Horsethief, maybe even doing the swoopy thang down the Ribbon by moonlight... What could possibly go wrong? |
| The weekend before is a good time for FFTF | tiggerider
Nov 27, 2001 6:57 PM | | So plan on coming over. We always get some good rides in the weekend before. Need to get the trails ready. So keep it in your date book. |
| a parallel? | Dan-oh
Nov 27, 2001 1:24 PM | | I remember a thread about suicidal squirrels at socalmtb.com.
Hmmm, death and dismemberment on the trails. (Sorry to bastardize the thread but I couldn't pass it up) |
| i have to admit.... | *rt*
Nov 27, 2001 2:52 PM | | that i've only ever seen live animals on the trail. the one time we thought the snake was dead, someone poked it with a stick & it zoomed off looking distinctly annoyed with us.
on the road, however, it is a different story. there are people i ride with who will stop the ride 10 times to save box turtles that have wandered out into the road. the 1st time is fine. the second is a nice break, by about the 5th turtle it's annoying, and by the 10th i'm ready to run the d@mn things over myself!! most of them just turn right around and wander back into the road where it's warm!!! turtles were not blessed with great intellect.
that said, i have been know to point out wooly-bear caterpillars that are crossing between the double paceline.
rt - wouldn't dream of taking a wounded caterpillar to the vet! |
| You poke snakes with sticks?!! | Brad Trent
Nov 28, 2001 6:37 AM | | That may explain why you're still single...!!!
BwaaaHaHaHaHa!!!
BeeT's (I just KILL myself...) |
| well, what do you poke them with?? | *rt*
Nov 28, 2001 10:02 AM | | BWAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAHaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa yerself! ;-P
r(lol)t |
| |
