Carnage

DDA (Daily Dead Animals) = ?

Due to circumstances beyond my control I am unable to give an accurate assessment of the number of dead animals I've seen in the last 24 hours.

If a rough figure will suffice then I'm probably in a position to provide it although I feel that recently received correspondence would suggest that 'rough' is less than is expected from such an otherwise exact and scientific study of life.

I spotted one dead wallaby by the side of the road yesterday afternoon, I also spotted a black fish washed up on the shore (I'm going to allow this one as although it only had a diameter of about 6cms it was in excess of a meter in length and therefore qualifies as noteworthy over and above insects and other very small, expendable creatures like plankton and budgerigars.

Part of me would like to include the squashed worm handed to me by my niece(ish) this morning as she clearly found it to be far from expendable but rules are rules so that sad death will be yet another futile annelidian gesture.

As you can tell my DDA count is a serious business so why, I hear you ask, is there such confusion over today's total?

Regrettably I'm unable to provide a pictorial explanation for my shortcomings as I don't own a digital camera and mere words will fail to do justice to the sight which greeted me outside the Co-Op as I popped in to buy an ice lolly for my niece(ish).

There was a blue open back van (I believe they are called Utes in Australia which is short for utility, utilitarianism or utopian) which was loaded with the split and bloody carcasses of several kangaroos.

I would have liked to have the time at my disposal to rebuild them in order to perform a reliable count for today but I had a dog in one hand and a niece(ish) in the other and couldn't quite work out the logistics.

In the name of science I'll call it three dissected roos making a grand total for the day of 5.