Hitting wild animals

Last night, driving on country lane, came across a car full of teenagers stopped in front of a fox laying on the road. Initially I presumed they'd hit it, but on getting out, I'm pretty sure they hadn't, but just came across it blocking their side of the road. They didn't know what to do, but didn't want to just ignore it. I got out and looked the fox in the face. There was no obvious sign of injury except a bleeding lip. The fox initially didn't seem to notice me, but then suddenly did, and tried to get up, not very successfully and just shuffled round facing the other way, but at least I could see all it's legs worked. There was no other traffic, so I left it for a minute or so, thinking it was probaby just recovering from being knocked out. The teenagers in the other car started talking about contacting a vet, and were themselves obviously rather distressed. After a while. I picked it up and moved it on to the verge, as it obviously wasn't going to last long laying across the road. With this, it got to its feet and slowly walked off into the hedge, at which point we all left.

This got me thinking afterwards -- is there anyone worth contacting had the fox not eventually been able to walk off by itself but been in distress? In that case, I think the car load of teenagers would also have been tears too, and I don't really know what I could have done to help the fox or them, but as the adult at the scene, feel that I should.

-- Andrew Gabriel