A long-standing joke asks why the chicken crossed the road, with the obvious and slightly amusing rejoinder, « To get to the other side. » But the chance meeting of animals and autos is no laughing matter, as the World Wildlife Fund points out: « Vehicles collide with large animals 1-2 million times every year in the U.S., resulting in more than $8 billion in costs and 200 human deaths. »
One solution — that both respects the Catholic Church’s call to care for creation, while recognizing the human need for mobility — is the construction of wildlife crossings, land bridges offering animals safe passage over or under busy roads and highways.
The largest wildlife crossing in the world — the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, christened after the foundation providing major funding — has just begun construction in Agoura Hills, California, some 30 miles west of Los Angeles. Straddling the 101 Freeway — one of the most congested freeways in the nation — the project should be completed by 2026.
« What I truly love about the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing isn’t really its physical size, but its large impact in inspiring a new age of wildlife crossings, » said Beth Pratt, regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s California Regional Center. « If the Los Angeles area can do it, nowhere else has any excuse. »
There are some 1,500 wildlife crossing structures in 43 U.S. states, which may at first sound impressive. However, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there are also more than 4 million miles of American highways and roads.
« Truly, it all comes down to funding, » Pratt explained. « Although government agencies are starting to include these in budgets, we are just not there yet to reach a critical mass. »
Noting the expense of vehicle collisions with wildlife, Pratt said, « If we invested even a fraction of that amount annually, we would be able to start accelerating these projects, and also help save money by avoiding these collisions in the first place. »
The Federal Highway Administration’s Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program — established under the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — has that very aim; the law authorized $350 million in funding from 2022 through 2026.
In mid-April, the Utah Department of Transportation nixed a wildlife crossing on the highway leading into Park City, a stretch of road the advocacy group Save People Save Wildlife said 30,000 cars travel each day. A UDOT official stated the agency is nonetheless « committed to looking at other potential solutions, while cutting down on wildlife-vehicle collisions. »
« To get developers to take account of animals — and wildlife in particular — is always an uphill battle, » noted Chris Fegan, chief executive of the U.K.-based Catholic Concern for Animals, which operates worldwide and traces its roots to 1929.
« Across the world, development is taking place in areas where it previously hasn’t — and animals are being badly affected, » Fegan said. « There’s cases of animal species on the verge of extinction because their natural habitats are being destroyed — and we seem not to take account of that as much as we should. We just build and build and build — whether it’s freeways or other things — without any recourse to the effect they have on the animals that are living there. »
Fegan has experience with wildlife crossings — he was once involved with a project designed to aid badgers, a protected species in the United Kingdom.
« They were putting a new bypass in — a new major road to go around a town, to alleviate congestion, » Fegan explained. « And there was a badger sett that used the land — so we actually put a badger crossing in, underneath. »
A badger « sett » is an underground den, comprised of a network of tunnels that can wind for more than 150 feet.
« Of course, that incurred extra cost — and the developers weren’t very happy. The local authority insisted, » recalled Fegan, « but it’s not the norm, by any means. »
Such mindfulness, Fegan said, should be viewed as imperative.
« We should — when we develop anything, at any time, anywhere on the planet — think, ‘What are the effects on the animals that live in that area?' » he said. « We should be always thinking about what we do — how it affects God’s non-human creation that we share the planet with. »
Charles Camosy — a fellow in moral theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary and College in Yonkers, New York, and author of For Love of Animals: Christian Ethics, Consistent Action — agreed.
« Animals are not mere things or tools to do with as we please. That idea comes from a consumerist throwaway culture, » Camosy said. « A Catholic theological approach insists that God’s will, as revealed in sacred Scripture, is that human and non-human animals are to live together in mutuality. Indeed, in Genesis (chapter) 2, animals are brought to Adam because ‘it is not good man should be alone.' »
Pope Francis issued the same reminder in his landmark 2015 ecological encyclical, Laudato Si’.
« We are not God, » the pontiff cautioned. « Nowadays we must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God’s image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures. »
Camosy said he views wildlife crossings as a reflection of that ethos.
« I think they are great, practical examples of what it means to plan and live as if God’s creation does not belong to us, » Camosy said, « but rather that we are stewards of God’s creation and have a duty to help God’s creatures flourish according to their kinds. »
Liz Holtz — a leader at the U.S.-based St. Francis Alliance, « a group of Catholics and other people of good will committed to seeking a just and compassionate world for all creatures » — echoed Camosy’s praise.
« Wildlife corridors are a meaningful and important way to protect the animals with whom we share our common home, » said Holtz. « Corridors not only protect animals as a whole — promoting the survival of species — but also individual animals who suffer painful, frightening, and sometimes prolonged deaths when they’re struck by cars. »
Holtz emphasized that wildlife crossings aren’t simply an altruistic endeavor, but rather an ethical concern.
« The pope’s encyclical Laudato Si’ was an urgent call to every person living on the planet to reassess our relationship with the Earth and God’s creation, including animals, » Holtz said. « Wildlife crossings are not merely a ‘kind’ thing to do for animals, but rather part of our duty as people of faith to build a compassionate world for all the Earth’s inhabitants. »
As summer travelers look forward to road trips near and far, they are quite likely to encounter wildlife — an encounter that may add to the poignant statistics tallying damage to both humans and animals.
« Our roadways have taken an enormous toll on life on this planet, for both wildlife and people, » Pratt said. « Yet what I find so encouraging is even though the magnitude of this problem is great, the solution is relatively simple. Wildlife crossings work — up to 97% successful where they have been installed. So, this is one moral wrong we can fix. »
