Officer should have stayed with animal

On March 14, 2013, about 8:30 a.m. I witnessed a large animal hit by a car while crossing the street. The car did not stop and the animal was thrown to the median. He looked like a large dog and was not moving.

Panicked that another car would hit it, I called the Prospect Heights police and was told they were aware of it. The dog lifted his head several times, so I now knew he was alive. About 10 minutes later a police car pulled in the median with lights flashing. I expected the officer to rush him to a vet, but he just stood there, made a call, got in his car and left, leaving the wounded animal lying there alone.

To my horror, within seconds another car hit the animal and knocked him several feet away. I called the Prospect Heights police again and she said she knew all about it and an officer was taking care of it. I said, “Yes, he was here, but he left and I don’t understand why he didn’t stay with the dog because another car just hit him!” She said, “Ma’am, it is not a dog, it’s a coyote.”

I said, “Who cares if it is a dog or a coyote! There is a defenseless animal in the street that the policeman should have stayed with. He just got hit again, by another car!”

She proceeded to tell me that the policeman is not allowed, by law, to touch a wild animal, and he called someone to pick him up. I told her I don’t care who he called, I think it was a very uncaring inhumane thing that the officer did to leave that tortured, frightened animal in the middle of the busy street, unprotected, to suffer a horrible death.

Karen Hogge

Prospect Heights