Harry's Blog

Let's keep this fairly anonymous. There's no need to name names. Let's just say that someone I know, no not me honest, recently had an altercation with a badger.

I say altercation. What I mean is that she. Or he, or it, let's not blame anyone. She, ran over a badger. Ran over or hit so hard with the car it disintegrated. Whatever. The damn thing ran out in front of the car in the middle of the night on a country lane, so what are you to do?

She, or he, or it, braked hard to avoid killing the damn thing. But it had flung itself at the car with little care or thought. Perhaps the badger was suicidal. We shall never know. The following day all that remained was gallons of blood everywhere on the road but no Badger. Maybe it survived long enough to drag itself back to its badger children to say goodbye.

The point is this. My...er...friend, who hit the badger didn't stop to see if the critter was okay. Why would you? It's not like this person was going to have the badger rebuilt at the local vets Steve Austin style. Who wants to pay for a titanium skeleton for a small walking shaving brush? And it's not a great idea for women...er...or anyone to stop in the middle of a dark country lane and go wandering. One might meet the same fate as the badger.

However my friend believes that there are some cases where one should stop. In fact she. Or he. Was convinced that you have to stop by law if you run over a dog. I scoffed at this idea. Sure, if I had hit a dog big enough to damage my car I'd go back to find its nametag so I can go make its owners pay for a new bumper and headlights. But otherwise it's just a sad unfortunate accident surely?

But what if the police come after you for not stopping for hitting a dog, my friend asked.

I'd tell them I thought it was a badger, I said.