Mr Death

[den]

This week I rescued and euthanased a poisoned tawny frogmouth and a kookaburra with a broken wing. I spoke to a lady in Trangie who had found a bat plastered to the front of her car, and kept it in a box for TWO DAYS before she decided the leg with exposed bones wasn't going to to spntaneously heal itself. Luckily the bats are hibernating at the moment so the poor little bugger is probably asleep.

"Will you euthanase it?" she asked.

Thought #1 "yes!" Thought #2 "Be diplomatic."
"I don't know," I replied. "It depends on how bad the leg is, but I'll do my best to rehab it." It was a lie, but I'm sure the powers that Be will forgive me.

"I'm just worried you might kill it. I found a wallaby with a broken leg last week and took it to a vet, and they just killed it."

"There's not much you can do for wallabies with broken legs."

"They could have sent it to the zoo." She sounded quite outraged.

"The zoo vets would have done the same."

"Well, if they can't save the leg why wouldn't they just amputate it?"

". . ."

At that moment a thousand reasons why this is an idiotic question took control of my mouth, making me say "Er..."

There are people-- They just-- er...

Comments

[tatterdemalion.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

some people!

[damienps.livejournal.com]

Dammit, too many stupid people and no hunting licenses to get them. Have a good beer.

[lonita.livejournal.com]

Y'know... yeah... there just are some people.

[zhenzhi.livejournal.com]

:-(

[walkertxkitty.livejournal.com]

You have mor self control than I do. I would have lost it upon finding that she'd kept the poor thing in a box for two days like that. I thought Florida had hicks, but damn...your rednecks are stupid.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

That's bogans for you.

[kamau-d-lyon.livejournal.com]

There are times that all you can do is be diplomatic and hope for the best. People just don't understand that for some creatures healing is just not possible for all injuries. Even for us humans there are times that there's nothing to be done except keep them comfortable. I've dealt too much with people dying of cancer not to know that. Don't let it get you down. You're doing good work and saving a lot of animals from a slow painful death.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

thanks, mate.

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Speaking on behalf of the Powers that Be,* you're forgiven. Now go forth, my child, and sin no more, unless it's required to get animals away from idiots, in which case the Powers authorize and implore you to tell any and all whoppers required.


*Hopefully they'll forgive me for doing so, too!

[dizzdvl.livejournal.com]

I am amazed at people's stupidity.

I saw a frogmouth at the aquarium and they seriously look like they are a head with some feet. Interesting bird. Kinda creepy, but neat.

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

*shakes head sadly*

People say the most amazingly dumb things sometimes. It's a wonder the animals haven't tried to retake the planet.

[haggis-bagpipes.livejournal.com]

Sounds like she's just concerned about that wallaby.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I'm just wondering how she thought a one-legged wallaby would hop around.

um.

[haggis-bagpipes.livejournal.com]

Must be hard to deal with people's ignorance on top of everything else you have to do.

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

Pardon my ignorance, but what would life be like for a wallaby missing a leg? I know dogs get around on three....

[fledchen.livejournal.com]

wallabies get around on two legs. It's fine for most small quadrupeds to get along with only three legs, but it's rather difficult for a biped to function with just one leg.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Macropods have two methods of getting around. One is a slow walk where they balance on their front paws and tail to bring their hind legs forward, then balancing on their hind legs to move their fore-paws forwad, The other method is that fast hop everyone knows. Both gaits require two functioning hind legs, otherwise the macropod is effectively immobilized.

Losing an arm isn't such a big deal because they're not needed for long distance travel and flght response.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Also, their pelvises aren't built to adjust to one-legged standing and hopping. Humans with one leg can adjust their centre of gravity to compensate, but kangaroos can't.

[jim-lane.livejournal.com]

Sometimes...you just have to call a moron a moron, and let the cards fall where they may.

And THAT mouth-breather was a MORON---!

Jeeezzz.....

Humans!

[klishnor.livejournal.com]

OK, there are some worth saving, with your good self being very high on that list (my position is much lower down), but I'm sure that if we all disappeared overnight every other species on the planet would simply breath a deep sigh of relief.

Keeping an animal in pain for two days before contacting someone... I would be seriously tempted to see how she liked it.