I Love RoadkillToys.com!
I tried so hard to resist it, I really did. The astonishingly rapid growth of my gorgeous Great Dane has left me somewhat poverty stricken of recent weeks. Not only have I had to buy her a new collar, harness and safety belt recently (we’re onto extra large sizes now, people), but she has also killed some of her toys and started trying to eat the fluff inside them, which means they’ve had to be chucked and replaced with new ones. It is simply amazing how quickly a bill in the pet shop adds up. I have also spent a positively frightening amount of money on books recently.
So my plan was to cut back on all non-essential expenditure for a while. But after seeing the Roadkill Toys on Dragon’s Den last week, I have not been able to stop thinking about them. They are just so unbelievably cool – I want them all! I can’t afford to spend that much money buying the whole range but I have lost the battle with myself, and this morning I ordered Grind the Rabbit:
Is he not perfect? There’s blood and guts coming out, and a tyre track on his back, and a fluffy tail, and a crazy bloodshot eye – I mean, honestly, what’s not to love? Plus, he comes in a body bag with a toe tag! What an awesome, awesome little product.
I love everything about the website: http://www.roadkilltoys.com. And as I can see that they have new products coming, I’m going to have to try not to visit the site for a while because I don’t know if I’ll be able to control myself. I can’t wait for Grind to arrive so that I can arrange him on my bed. He’ll probably give my Siamese a bit of a turn to begin with (she hates things like that), but I’m sure that Grind will soon fit right in with Suki, Moose and the rest of my gang. They are, after all, quite accustomed to the weird things I occasionally bring home.
Tags: Dead stuff, Dragons' Den
September 20th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Wow!
Now that looks interesting!
September 20th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Yes, they are kinda cool! Having lost 3 cats to the road opposite our house and having to pick up their mangled bodies, makes me go off those ever so slightly though
September 20th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Er…..I’ve got to say….I’m with Suki on this one. Just don’t bring them down to the movie room!
September 20th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Michaela - one of our cats was hit by a car once. He pulled through after a lot of vet bills but I don’t allow any of my cats to go outside anymore. Not going through that trauma again!
These toys definitely won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but I think they’re a lot of fun (and I’m a vegetarian and animal rights activist). When it comes to real animals on the roads, though, I am the most careful driver ever. I even brake for butterflies
September 21st, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Just had an argument with my wife yesterday when I used the brakes heavily because a butterfly was flying across (still not sure I didn’t hit it though). So darn hard to avoid them, or all the other little bugs that splash against the window…breaks my heart.
I will get some of these roadkill toys though, they make perfect gifts!
September 21st, 2009 at 3:21 pm
No doubt people think I’m mad when I brake for butterflies, but if they’re in my car then I’m afraid they have to put up with it! Like you say though, it’s impossible to avoid all of them, and I always feel really rotten when bugs hit the window.
September 24th, 2009 at 7:09 am
Just to play the devil’s advocate here, let me offer up a contrary view. I may be approaching this from a law and economics point of view, but I tend to consider the risk to others of braking for bugs to outweigh the harm caused by them splatting against my windscreen. Assume that I’m traveling at a decent speed. I see a butterfly headed for my windscreen. I brake suddenly, and the guy behind me can’t stop in time. I’ve cause quite a bit of damage to his car, my car, and the butterfly is probably also still dead. The economic harm of braking suddenly for a bug is simply vastly greater than the loss of one short-lived bug.
I would try to avoid running over a larger animal, but again, if I’m certain that the consequence of not running over the animal is significant economic or physical harm to me, my passengers, the driver behind me, and our vehicles, I’m likely to come down in favor of running over the animal.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:27 am
I think this is fundamentally a “bugs’ lives are worth so much less than humans’ lives” thing, which I do not agree with.
I see your point in that braking to save one bug isn’t a good idea if it kills five people. But then you could say the same thing about braking to avoid hitting a person - if it kills five others then is it worth it? Braking in a car is always a judgement call and, obviously, always involves risk.
The one thing I would have to dismiss entirely is the idea that you shouldn’t brake because the person behind you might hit you. At the risk of sounding harsh about it - that is entirely their problem (legally as well as morally). Because I drive at the speed limit across the forest, I get people driving in my boot all the time, trying to pressure me into driving faster. They’ve never succeeded yet, and they ain’t likely to. You should always leave sufficient braking distance for precisely that reason - whether it’s a kid running out into the road (as happened to me once) or a rabbit or a butterfly or whatever, emergency stops are sometimes necessary. So if you damage your car by crashing into the car in front because you were driving too close to them then, I’m sorry to say, this is entirely your own fault - not the butterfly’s, and not the person who braked to avoid hitting it.
Having said that, you’re not often going to get emergency stops for bugs and butterflies (even if people wanted to) because by the time you see them it’s usually too late.