American Roadkill: The Animal Victims of Our Busy Highways

Slaughtered along our highways and byways, roadkill may be observed by American motorists regularly, but aren't likely to be given much thought. Research scientists, animal rights activists, roadkill artists, writers, ethicists and lyricists, however, are increasingly sounding the alarm about its prevalence, reporting that we are killing the very animals we love, and are literally driving many of them to the brink of extinction. Detailing the death and destruction of our favorite mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and insect pollinators, this study examines the ways in which we are jeopardizing our own futures as our vehicles destroy wildlife large, small, and essential. Beginning in the era of the Model T, university biologists counted the common carnage of the time-cottontails, woodchucks, and squirrels, mostly-and that record-keeping continues today. But beyond reporting the bleak statistics, zoologists and their citizen scientist friends are both rerouting trails and migratory paths of animals and are advocating for man's best friends in our cat and dog companions. Examining these activities, this work illuminates both our successes and failures in keeping animals out of harm's way and what those efforts reflect about ourselves and our capacity to care enough to alter the road ahead.