An awful task to undertake.

[Nicho]

As it was quite warm today and I found myself with some free time, I decided to go for a ride on my motorbike. I went down to the local pond to stop off for a cigarette and as I passed the local houses, I saw an old Scottie dog plodding along the pavement. As an owner of two dogs myself, I wondered why a dog was out on it's own on a busy road. I had my cigarette and got back on my bike to go home. As I returned up the same road, I saw with a sickening realization, that the dog had been hit by a car. I turned around, parked up and went to retrieve the dog, it was indeed dead. There was no doubt at all. I picked up the dog and looked around, as I walked up to the nearest house a car pulled up, I thought it was the owner, but much to my surprise, a young lad got out and confessed to me that he had just hit the dog and that there was no warning as the dog came out of the grass. I believed him, he was genuine. We both walked up to the house and knocked. Another young man came out, I had laid the dog down, I asked him if he owned a dog and he replied that he did, I then broke the news to him. Like I said, I have two dogs of my own and as he started to cry, I almost joined him. I didn't tell him that the lad stood next to me had confessed. What good would it have done? All I was thinking was that if someone admitted to killing my dog, accidental or otherwise, I don't think I would be able to control myself and the last thing he needed at a time of grief was police involvement. Did I do the right thing, it's playing on my mind now and every time I look at my dogs I ask myself if I did right. My thoughts go out to the whole family, it must be devastating news to receive, I don't know that I could cope with it myself. My dogs are my family, anyone who owns a dog will understand. Nicho...!

[Jakro]

Well, if you told the truth, one of two things could have happened. 1) The owner gets angry at the guilty party and the situation escalates into a mess. 2) The owner sees the same thing as you, the genuine regret, and has a chance over time to forgive (probably not right away), and everyone has a peace of mind. Not telling avoids the messy situation, but it avoids also full closure of the situation for probably both the guilty party and the owner. The owner will probably feel bitter to someone for the rest of his life for taking away his dog and running away, without taking responsibility. Meanwhile the guilty lad might feel as conflicted as you are about not owning up the responsibility. Ultimately it's your judgment call. If you felt it would just become an unnecessary mess, then you did the right thing. But I'm not here to tell you if you did right or wrong. Only you can be the judge of that in that case. If anything I'll say you did well in a horrible situation. It's a toss-up really between telling the truth and hiding it and I won't blame you either way.

[SpaceCowboyDave]

You did the right thing. I would try not to think about it too much and move on.

[dutchraptor]

The exact same thing happened to me on Christmas day, it was absolutely devastating (I wasn't driving, but I had to break the news). At least we did the right thing and brought the dog back to the owner, I know the feeling of loosing an animal and it's worse than seeing them dead. At least the owner got to say goodbye.

[Darkmatters]

You did the best thing possible, and so did the guy who hit the dog.