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6:35 a.m. - 2004-04-29 Tragedies with animals has been a lifelong theme in my life. Growing up on a dairy farm in Rural Wisconsin with a nature loving mother I have seen many things. But the story I am about to tell hit me in a different way. Some day my mother and I will be like the lady who was fined for obstructing traffic while she tried to save a turtle in the middle of the road. One day when I was commuting down a rural back road in Wisconsin between Oshkosh and Fond du Lac I noticed a duck just sitting, all odd, on the side of the road... So about a mile down I got an opportunity, and the moral conscience kick in to turn, around and go check it out. It was odd to see a duck, just sitting, close to the edge of the road, where any mild mannered truck driver or large motorist might sweep it up in the air gusts of thier vehicles. Mangling it without even noticing. Well I pulled over and slowly approached it, talking to as though that was going to make it feel better! Sheesh. Anyway it kind of looked at me and then waddled off, favoring its right wing. After following it around this small yard by an abandoned shed, I decided to take it to an animal rehab to see if they could help its wing heal. I ran down to the garden center down the road and they gave me a box and wished me luck. I came back and put some grass in the box and was beginning to attempt to shoo the duck in the box so I could put it in my car. All of a sudden this odd man starts walking up to me from the house down aways. "What are you doing?" He said "I am trying to catch this duck so I can take it to get its wing fixed" I replied "That's my duck, I will take care of it." he said to my surprise Never did I think this scenario would happen...to be caught chasing someone's duck?? I stood there in a bit of shock as he bruskly scooped the duck up and tucked it under his arm. I drove home bawling to my mom that this man had taken my duck and most likely was going to eat it. Another story about animal suffering was one my mom came across. My mom used to drive 45 min one way to work and back each day. Well one day she was driving and she saw a raccoon on the side of the road, sitting up on its back legs. Now my mom is the epitomy of the "stop and save" lady. So she turned around and pulled up by it. At this same time a young couple doing the same commute pulled over too. They looked at the raccon and realized it had been hit, one if its eyes hanging out of the socket, but it seemed oddly calm. The young man said that he was taking his wife to the same hospital my mom worked at and then he was going back home. They discussed what to do with the raccoon and in the end my mom took his wife to work, and the young man took the raccoon to the animal rehab center. My mom was friends with one of the women who worked at this rehab center, and she called later in the day to see if the man had indeed taken the animal there. The woman said yes he had, and unfortunately they had to put the raccoon to sleep because it was so badly injured. It had in fact been hit by a truck, and its spine had been severed very low, so that the animal felt no pain, but also couldn't move. In fact it would have sat there until it starved to death, which could have been days if my mom hadn't taken it in. I know that scenarios like this don't happen all the time, in fact they rarely do, but know that it is good to feel the pain of something dying. Even if you have nothing to do with it, I think that shows your humanity and compassion in a very pure form. Maeve Last Note: In seventh grade my biology teacher told us a story about hitting a deer and leaving it out in the woods even though it was alive after he hit it...I asked him why he didn't take it in to the rehab center. He replied "Well now the animals have something to eat today" to which I replied "Yeah, but it wasn't supposed to die, you hit it, they weren't figuring it in to thier meals today." He just smiled and nothing to say. I guess advocacy is my lot in life. :) 0 comments
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