New Use For The Reusable Shopping Bag - Animal Rescue

I am a huge advocate for the poor animals that get out into traffic with no one to help. Yesterday, I stopped traffic to rescue a turtle and 2 weeks ago my technician, Jamie, and I escorted a family of geese across the busy road in front of our hospital. There are a lot of intolerant drivers on our roads! Recently, we have had to euthanize a number of snapping turtles that were so severely injured by being hit by a car that they could not be rehabilitated.

A few weeks ago, as I was driving to work, I came across a goose and its goslings trying to make their way up an overgrown embankment to a farm field. Fortunately, all the traffic had stopped, but we were at a loss as to how to help, as the parent bird became more agitated it moved too quickly for the goslings to follow. Finally the goose made a dash up the hill. I and another person tried to direct the rest of the gaggle in the direction of the parent. All but one gosling made it. I asked the gentleman helping me if his work truck had a bucket, we would just place the poor thing in a bucket and carry it over the hill. He had no such equipment. I went to my truck and found a reusable shopping bag, I ran up, scooped up the wayward bird, popped it in the bag for safe keeping, walked it up the hill and dumped it out in the farm field with the rest of its family. I had not even had my coffee yet and already did my good deed for the day!!

I began thinking about the shopping bag and realized this was an essential part of my car emergency kit. Turtles, injured birds, small mammals, all could be ushered into the bag for safe transport or rescue.

So don't empty those bags from your car, even if you always forget them at the store, keep at least one handy this summer to help all the animals that are injured or just plain stuck on the roadway.