# When you're driving, and you see a squirrel in the road...



## Ravellian

I try to run it over, I hate squirrels.


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## Couchie

I would probably keep driving straight and hope I don't hit it. I don't want to kill it, but it's not like I'm going to swerve and risk killing myself to not kill it.


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## Almaviva

My life is more important to me than that of a squirrel. The prudent thing to do in terms of driving safety is to keep driving straight. There are lots of bad accidents, some of them fatal, thanks to people swerving to avoid animals that cross the road. But I'm not for cruelty against animals and while I'll keep driving straight, I'll hope that I don't hit the squirrel.


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## samurai

I agree with Alma, but wish that another option had been included in the poll reading "If I could *swerve* *safely *to avoid hitting it". Unfortunately, though, this last option is not too likely to be exercised in New York {where I live} and other large, crowded cities and towns. So I 'd have to opt for the "driving straight" choice.


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## samurai

Ravellian said:


> I try to run it over, I hate squirrels.


What would explain your antipathy towards these creatures anyway?


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## Weston

Even though they eat all my figs before I can get any, I wouldn't want to kill a squirrel. But I think they can swerve a lot better than a car can.


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## Couchie

Now a child is another story. Then I would definitely swerve.

To hit it.


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## Kopachris

As long as I don't run over the squirrel with the tires, I'm fine. I'll generally swerve just enough so that those sharp little bones won't give me a flat. I don't _try_ to hit it, though.


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## Art Rock

But... but... they are cute!


Nuts 5 by Art Rock (Hennie), on Flickr


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## mamascarlatti

Where I come from originally they are even cuter:










They used to come on the windowsill and eat the food I put out for them.


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## Sid James

We don't have any squirrels down here, none that I know of, so the point is academic as far as I'm concerned.

...but we do have many feral animals that I wouldn't feel guilty of running over. Eg. Cane toads in North-East Australia. They're bloody horrible things, they eat everything, have poisonous glands, look horrible, the works. HERE is an interesting article about these nasties and other rogue animals here, it actually starts with a cane toad being run over by a car, which is quite apt re this thread...


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## TxllxT

We saw two flattened squirrels down the road from _Cavallino_ to _Punta Sabbioni_ at the Adriatic seaside of the Venice Laguna. Suddenly a live one jumped out from the side on the road, it jumped back, jumped again infront of the wheels etc. So I just kept going straight, watching in the backmirror how the jumping lottery of life & death resulted: the squirrel survived.


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## elgar's ghost

Art Rock said:


> But... but... they are cute!
> 
> 
> Nuts 5 by Art Rock (Hennie), on Flickr


If rats had bushy tails I guess I'd consider them cute as well. That said, I certainly prefer squirrels to bloody pigeons.


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## Fsharpmajor

In this country the native species is the red squirrel, but it is being crowded out by the grey squirrel, which is an introduced pest. It's a carrier of a disease that kills red squirrels, and it is reducing songbird numbers because it robs their nests. So if it was a red squirrel I would swerve to avoid it, but if it was a grey squirrel, I would swerve to hit it.

One way to reduce grey squirrel numbers might be a publicity campaign to encourage people to kill them and eat them. They're supposed to be quite tasty.


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## Delicious Manager

I never swerve for ANYTHING (or anyone, for that matter). I trained myself to do this when I started driving. The carnage (and death) that can be caused by a wild swerve can far exceed the damage done by NOT swerving. I will brake hard, yes, but I will never swerve.


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## hawk

When it is safe I will swerve for everything in my autos path. I try to avoid the moths that are attracted to the headlights at night peepers ( very small toad), catepillars, snakes etc. I feel that all these lives are valuable.....
Then there are the moose, bear, deer that will do damage to you and your car should you fail to avoid them!
When I first began driving I was flying down the highway with cars on both sides of me and close behind. It was at night...I saw the reflection from an animals eyes in my lane. Couldn't change lanes or slow down to avoid it so I ran over it and killed it! As I was about to hit it I made eye contact and it looked as if to say "please don't hit me~help me"....
It was a Cocker Spaniel puppy. At that point (almost 40 years ago) I realized the capacity for killing that we who drive have. Since then I make the effort to avoid everything I can.....


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## waldvogel

Fsharpmajor said:


> In this country the native species is the red squirrel, but it is being crowded out by the grey squirrel, which is an introduced pest. It's a carrier of a disease that kills red squirrels, and it is reducing songbird numbers because it robs their nests. So if it was a red squirrel I would swerve to avoid it, but if it was a grey squirrel, I would swerve to hit it.
> 
> One way to reduce grey squirrel numbers might be a publicity campaign to encourage people to kill them and eat them. They're supposed to be quite tasty.


Europe sent North America pigeons, house sparrows, starlings, rats, mice, dandelions, purple loosestrife, smallpox, measles, influenza, Communism, Fascism...

The Americas' weak response was squirrels, Canada Geese, syphilis, tobacco, and Country music.


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## hawk

waldvogel said:


> *Europe sent North America pigeons, house sparrows, starlings, rats, mice, dandelions, purple loosestrife, smallpox, measles, influenza, Communism, Fascism...*The Americas' weak response was squirrels, Canada Geese, syphilis, tobacco, and Country music.


You forgot Pilgrims~ :devil:


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## Ukko

_Delicious_ and I may be alike in this. I trained myself to _automatically_ brake while veering very little. Nowadays with ABS one can 'panic' brake and still retain control. However, my secondary, _conscious_ response is to look for a path to dodge. That response takes a large part of a second though, so probably the path won't be useful.

[My understanding is that the gray squirrel was introduced to North America by English colonists. Now the perpetrator's identity is in question? BTW I know from personal experience that the gray squirrel is edible. The red squirrel tastes bad.]


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## Ravellian

samurai said:


> What would explain your antipathy towards these creatures anyway?


Haven't you seen those GEICO commercials? The squirrels are scheming to wreck our cars!! Oh, and they always eat the birdfood we leave out. They must die for these offenses.


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## Rasa

People, people... they're just animals. They don't deserve to die. They don't deserve to live.


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## Polednice

Swerve to avoid it! Brake! Stop the damn car! Get out! Start squealing! Pick up the squirrel! Cuddle it! Take it home!


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## Klavierspieler

Polednice said:


> Swerve to avoid it! Brake! Stop the damn car! Get out! Start squealing! Pick up the squirrel! Cuddle it! Take it home!


And then fatten it up for dinner!


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## TxllxT

waldvogel said:


> Europe sent North America pigeons, house sparrows, starlings, rats, mice, dandelions, purple loosestrife, smallpox, measles, influenza, Communism, Fascism...
> 
> The Americas' weak response was squirrels, Canada Geese, syphilis, tobacco, and Country music.


 + Desperate Housewives . I'm glad that American Football stayed at the other side of the pond.


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## Ukko

TxllxT said:


> + Desperate Housewives . I'm glad that American Football stayed at the other side of the pond.


Ah, but it didn't.


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## Nix

None of the above. I brake.

At least where I live, squirrels aren't crossing highways or traffic filled streets. There in residential roads or places with few cars... so pretty easy to avoid.


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## Fsharpmajor

Hilltroll72 said:


> [My understanding is that the gray squirrel was introduced to North America by English colonists. Now the perpetrator's identity is in question? BTW I know from personal experience that the gray squirrel is edible. The red squirrel tastes bad.]


Actually the Eastern Grey, which is the species that plagues us here, is native to your neck of the woods. But don't worry, I'm not blaming you for it personally.


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## Almaviva

hawk said:


> When it is safe I will swerve for everything in my autos path. I try to avoid the moths that are attracted to the headlights at night peepers ( very small toad), catepillars, snakes etc. I feel that all these lives are valuable.....
> Then there are the moose, bear, deer that will do damage to you and your car should you fail to avoid them!
> When I first began driving I was flying down the highway with cars on both sides of me and close behind. It was at night...I saw the reflection from an animals eyes in my lane. Couldn't change lanes or slow down to avoid it so I ran over it and killed it! As I was about to hit it I made eye contact and it looked as if to say "please don't hit me~help me"....
> It was a Cocker Spaniel puppy. At that point (almost 40 years ago) I realized the capacity for killing that we who drive have. Since then I make the effort to avoid everything I can.....


This really worries me. You'll end up killing yourself or a loved one.


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## kv466

I never avoid a good squirrel!...oh, you mean those cute critters?...oh, yeah...keep driving.


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## Kieran

I'd slow down, then stop before this bemused squirrel. I'd get out the car brandishing some nuts from the side of the road, and unbeknownst to the idiotic looking squirrel, my wife would climb into the drivers seat.

Little trusting squirrel would do that thing they do - on hind legs and buck-teeth - waiting for the nuts and on a pre-arranged signal my wife would mow him down in the car.

No point hitting him if you don't have a good view, is there? :tiphat:


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## hawk

Almaviva said:


> This really worries me. You'll end up killing yourself or a loved one.


Alma thanks for your concern. Please don't worry though. I haven't injured or killed anyone, I have had one accident in all my years of driving~I backed into a telephone pole doing about 3mph  If it makes any difference I am a little older than you are which means driving (I assume) longer, I don't drink alcohol or do drugs. The only thing that might distract me while safely driving is a wonderful piece of music


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## Chris

I would swerve to avoid anything, even the hated Grey.


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## Almaviva

hawk said:


> Alma thanks for your concern. Please don't worry though. I haven't injured or killed anyone, I have had one accident in all my years of driving~I backed into a telephone pole doing about 3mph  If it makes any difference I am a little older than you are which means driving (I assume) longer, I don't drink alcohol or do drugs. The only thing that might distract me while safely driving is a wonderful piece of music


All safe-driving guidelines call for not swerving, especially in the case of big animals like a deer. It's better to have your bumper damaged than to end up dead on the side of the road. The problem with saying "I swerve when it's safe" is that this all happens in fractions of seconds, so if you condition yourself to *never* swerve and just brace for impact and drive straight your chances are much better since the mass and inertia of your car are much bigger than the animal's, but it isn't bigger than some huge trees firmly planted in the ground on the side of the road. However when you condition yourself to always swerve (e.g., "I make the effort to avoid *everything I can*") then at some point you'll misjudge and swerve when it's not safe, because your conditioned reflex will be one of swerving rather than one of driving straight.

You know hawk, one of the main causes of accidents is overconfidence, when people say "it has never happened to me, so, it won't." You start taking everything for granted, and one day the conditions unexpectedly change (e.g. you swerve right into an oil spill that you aren't seeing) and then, oops, next thing you end up hitting a huge tree at full speed rather than a small squirrel.

I don't mean to criticize you, hawk, it's just that I get truly worried for the safety of people who think like this (not just you, here in this thread, but Chris just said he'd do the same, and Polednice... ). It's dangerous, folks! Don't swerve!


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## Polednice

Thankfully, I don't plan on learning to drive.


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## Couchie

Almaviva said:


> All safe-driving guidelines call for not swerving, especially in the case of big animals like a deer.


Where did you hear this? It works for deer perhaps, but you *definitely* do not want to take a moose head-on. Their legs support their massive body at the perfect height to go right through your windshield. This is probably a non-significant issue in most of the US but in Canada these crashes are very frequently fatal. Seatbelts, airbags, etc. are of no help when a 1000 pound moose is coming through your windshield.


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## CountessAdele

:/ I swerve for anything. You see I _know_ I'm suppose to stay straight and hope, but I sort of have a knee jerk reaction to either swerve or "panic brake" or both.....so who wants to go for a drive?


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## Kopachris

Couchie said:


> Almaviva said:
> 
> 
> 
> All safe-driving guidelines call for not swerving, especially in the case of big animals like a deer.
> 
> 
> 
> Where did you hear this? It works for deer perhaps, but you *definitely* do not want to take a moose head-on. Their legs support their massive body at the perfect height to go right through your windshield. This is probably a non-significant issue in most of the US but in Canada these crashes are very frequently fatal. Seatbelts, airbags, etc. are of no help when a 1000 pound moose is coming through your windshield.
Click to expand...

I have to agree with Couchie. The Mythbusters did several tests with hitting moose head-on, and they were all devastating. For a moose, or any other large game animal, I think the best option would be to hit the brakes and swerve to the left if there's no oncoming traffic, to the right otherwise. Then if you still hit the animal, it's more likely to be a side impact, and will cause much less damage. But don't swerve for anything short of that.

As I said before, the most I'll swerve for a squirrel is about 14 inches, just so that the bones don't stick in my tires.


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## TresPicos

I'm afraid I would swerve too. When that squirrel or cat or badger suddenly appears, it's difficult to do nothing. 

But that's the responsibility you take on when you get in your car. To protect passengers and other drivers, you have to be cool enough to just hit that poor animal. 

Unless it's a moose or a cow or a horse or something equally massive. 

If it's even possible to internalize such a check list and turn it into an instinct.


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## Polednice

I just discovered the "Similar Threads" feature at the bottom of the screen. Here are the first four:

1. Driving me nuts
2. What song is this?!?! Its driving me mad!
3. Revolutionary Road/ Road to Perdition
4. Road to Perdition


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## Ukko

I once came around a corner at night on a dirt country road, and was confronted with a Holstein in the middle of it. I stopped in time. The cow would have cleaned off the top half of my car, just like driving under the box of a tractor-trailer - except that the cow might have moved the engine into the driver's seat too. An adult moose as an obstacle is very nearly the same as that tractor-trailer in 'effect'. Cow or moose, I say aim for the puckerbrush.

Reaction time may not be quick enough, but I figure every little bit may help.


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## Huilunsoittaja

I would never hit a squirrel! I love squirrels! And besides, hitting animals is a little gruesome, you'd have to clean your car up a little. When I get my own car, I should have a little bumper sticker that says "I brake for squirrels."


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## Huilunsoittaja

Polednice said:


> Thankfully, I don't plan on learning to drive.


I guess you can only hope that while sitting in a mass-transportation vehicle, you won't be considered an accomplice.


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## Ukko

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I would never hit a squirrel! I love squirrels! And besides, hitting animals is a little gruesome, you'd have to clean your car up a little. When I get my own car, I should have a little bumper sticker that says "I brake for squirrels."


Nope, a squirrel or chipmunk 'incident' won't require cleanup. There's usually only a little bump/crunch thing when the wheel goes over it. Although if you're driving one of those low road-clearance cars....


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## Almaviva

Couchie said:


> Where did you hear this? It works for deer perhaps, but you *definitely* do not want to take a moose head-on. Their legs support their massive body at the perfect height to go right through your windshield. This is probably a non-significant issue in most of the US but in Canada these crashes are very frequently fatal. Seatbelts, airbags, etc. are of no help when a 1000 pound moose is coming through your windshield.


OK, I hear you, but thankfully we don't have moose here. And no green monsters either.


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## Almaviva

This reminds me of a good joke, about a dialogue between two tomatoes crossing the road.

Tomato A: Beware of the truck! Pufff....
Tomato B: What truck? Pufff.....


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## Fsharpmajor

Almaviva said:


> OK, I hear you, but thankfully we don't have moose here. And no green monsters either.


I think you're right about something the size of a deer. I once hit a young doe head on while driving at night. I was driving below the speed limit because I knew there were deer in the vicinity. However, it bolted across the road directly in front of me. I hit the brakes, but I had no time to swerve. The impact did a fair bit of damage to the front end of my car, and killed the deer, but I was uninjured. (I was wearing my seat belt, fortunately).


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## kv466

Almaviva said:


> This really worries me. You'll end up killing yourself or a loved one.


I thought you only drive virtually, from home...while eating the most expensive thing you can find.

You mean you actually step out of the house now and then? Call me pleasantly surprised.


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## Almaviva

kv466 said:


> I thought you only drive virtually, from home...while eating the most expensive thing you can find.
> 
> You mean you actually step out of the house now and then? Call me pleasantly surprised.


Yes, it very rarely happens to me that I venture outside although I abhor the UVA and the bugs and that smell of green leaves and flowers. Nature is so boring!


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## hawk

Hmmmm Alma I think your name for nature is Anna~


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## Almaviva

hawk said:


> Hmmmm Alma I think your name for nature is Anna~


 Anna is indeed nature's best creature!
I also enjoy lobsters and ducks.


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## myaskovsky2002

Next thread: and if you see an elephant?

Martin, curious


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## starthrower

myaskovsky2002 said:


> Next thread: and if you see an elephant?
> 
> Martin, curious


You'll know what the squirrel feels like! Just remember that, you sadistic sickos. lol!


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## Klavierspieler

myaskovsky2002 said:


> Next thread: and if you see an elephant?
> 
> Martin, curious


I remember hearing about a sign in some African country that said: 'Elephants have the right-of-way'.


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## opus55

Keep driving straight and hope you don't hit it - well, this didn't go well last week and I heard some noise that still echos in my head..


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Now if it was a Koala...............


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## SixFootScowl

Should not try to hit it, but frankly we all should learn to not swerve for an animal (unless it is a mighty moose that will come through the wind shield and take you out) because say a cat darts into the road and you swerve? You could end up dead or maimed. Is the cat worth it?


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## Klassik

Fritz Kobus said:


> Should not try to hit it, but frankly we all should learn to not swerve for an animal (unless it is a mighty moose that will come through the wind shield and take you out) because say a cat darts into the road and you swerve? You could end up dead or maimed. Is the cat worth it?


Well, there's a reason why some countries moose test cars. Of course, Australia has to be special...



> Australian car manufacturers use crash test kangaroo dummies for similar reasons.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose_test

Here in Texas, flying mattresses seem to be a major problem.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Klassik said:


> Well, there's a reason why some countries moose test cars. Of course, Australia has to be special...
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose_test
> 
> Here in Texas, flying mattresses seem to be a major problem.


Emu's are worse than the Kanga's but I'm just glad I don't live up north with the Crocs


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## Klassik

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Emu's are worse than the Kanga's but I'm just glad I don't live up north with the Crocs


Are you really worried about a croc racing in front of your car? If so, you'd probably be better off trading your car in for an emu. :lol:


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Klassik said:


> Are you really worried about a croc racing in front of your car? If so, you'd probably be better off trading your car in for an emu. :lol:


Think it would more of a case of making sure you didn't park your car near big crocs or it might not be there when you get back... :lol:


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## Taplow

Whoever would deliberately hit an animal is a monster.

I'm just glad I don't drive these days.


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## Capeditiea

What about coming to a complete stop from about 300km/h or so, just so you could grant it the chance to run across the street properly. Which then, you are brought into a major. and music becomes exhilerating... which then you accelerate once again only to find you have to do it again, because a cute little dear decides to eat a carcus... (in my reality it seems to be quite common.) 

You stop for this... and the deer decides to ask you to step out of the vehicle... so you do... they arrest you due to the fact they smell your hair conditioner... You end up in a cell where a skunk who is aimed and ready, To make sure you are not to flee from this cave... you then realize a bear is inside with you. Which you both were unable to sleep that night. 



I don't see why the above couldn't be a choice...


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## Klassik

Taplow said:


> Whoever would deliberately hit an animal is a monster.


Hey, for some here in the American south, hitting a squirrel with a car is called bringing home dinner. They would be "nuts" to try to avoid a squirrel! 

Now, for your viewing pleasure, here is a video of squirrel eating a Freedom...err...French fry out of a garbage can set to classical music:


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