How scary! When I see something run out in the road, I brake instictively. How could you not? And it's against the law there?

Wow.

Although, in Michigan, most insurance companies will not cover the cost for repairs to a vehicle if you swerve to miss an animal.

Say you swerve to miss a deer and hit a tree. It's likely insurance won't cover it. They would rather you hit the animal as it would supposedly do less damage to the vehicle. I guess it does make sense though. Many have died hitting trees from swerving to miss a deer too.

(Though I've seen the damage a deer can do to a car. )

But you can brake legally to spare a small critter, I think.