Animal Ambulance

[den]

I picked up another boobook owl today. The people said it was a tawny frogmouth with a broken wing. I'd contacted the zoo and told them I was bringing in a bird before I'd picked him up. A broken wing is beyond my capabilities.

When I finally picked up the bird and opened the box my heart sank. It looked ike something had torn all the feathers, skin and muscle from his forearm. The bone wasn't broken. That was easy to determin because I could see a good 2" length of it. The zoovet looked into the box, sighed and went "Oh."

Euthanasia was the only choice.

Comments

[tatterdemalion.livejournal.com]

oh dear

*hugs&

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[level-head.livejournal.com]

There are three likely and sad possibilities that occur to me:
1 -- this was by mechanical misadventure, a car strike perhaps. You could damage the car in return, but this would probably be unsatisfying.

2 -- this was the result of a collision with the "tooth and claw" set of Nature; some bigger predator got hold of it. The damage and destruction done in turn to the offending animal is not something you're likely to do, and it would create more work for friend Batty Den. Moreover, the Tawny Frogmouth may have been responsible for such injuries itself for creatures further down its food chain. Nature is cruel indeed, or at least indifferent to such things.

3 -- Here's where it would count: an intentional or unthinking infliction of injury by a person. And while this might indeed be satisfying and even perhaps instructive, here is where you will run afoul of human law.

So, in short, I think the answer to your last question is "No".

It is very unfortunate, and my sympathies are with Batty Den.

===|==============/ Level Head

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[level-head.livejournal.com]

I expected that you were doing a bit of rhetorical venting. I took it seriously as a bit of an exercise, a gedanken experiment. No harm done, I think.

===|==============/ Level Head

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I checked out the area, and there's blood and feathers on a barbed wire fence. Looks like it was just an accident.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Damn, I'm sorry.