WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC! This post is more of a public awareness piece, than it is one of our usual rescue stories. Waterfowl, both wild and abandoned domestic, face MANY obstacles when trying to fend for survival in the wilderness. Often, their most challenging fate is the numerous predation factors that lurk among them. The most common among them would include owls, which hunt usually by dark of night, hawks, by light of day, the deadly mink, which has no preference, the raccoon, the possum, the fox and coyote, to name just a few.
Nonetheless, the laziness of man contributes senselessly in so many ways to the crippling and killing of God’s beautiful creatures. Please don’t misunderstand, a balance between man and nature is often achieved through studied and implemented programs across a wide spectrum of the habitat of both, but simple, common sense approaches must be initiated by man alone, as he is the creature that God has enabled with this ability .
In the following example, simply just picking up after yourself, after you have had the privilege of ‘working the land’ that we have been blessed to inherit, would be a prime example of giving back to that which you have taken from, and nothing more.
Even though I am a Certified Wildlife Rehabilitator with the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council for the past few years, I am restricted by Michigan and Federal law from doing certain things (I will try to elaborate on this at a future date) to, and with, migratory waterfowl. This is an instance where he would have had to have been put down because the law states the he couldn’t be fully rehabbed. All certified rehabbers have their own pros and cons about the DNR (Department of Natural Resources), their rules and regulations, some very useful, some extremely absurd. One of my cons is that if I were licensed, state and federally, I could not associate with the beautiful and majestic Mute Swan, a magnificent behemoth of land, lake and air! One of the most misunderstood of all waterfowl!
Now, to the awareness… yesterday morning, two very caring individuals, with nowhere else to turn, made a valiant attempt to save a creature whose fate was doomed from the moment his precious body became entangled and sewn into the silkily, invisible noose, left unattended by a ‘careless, amateur, so-called fisherman’. Real fishermen leave no lines!
The unbreakable thread, slowly and surgically, self-amputated, in a most horrendous and painfully gothic manner, the Humerus bone, and all of the nerves, tissues and ligaments in the surrounding area. I can’t even imagine how this fragile creature survived as long as he did, during the excruciating ordeal. All so needlessly, just because someone was too lazy to take the time to clean up after their own mess. Heartbreaking!
Please, if you see something out in the wild that doesn’t belong, don’t think that because you didn’t put it there, you shouldn’t have to pick it up, think of this angel, he certainly didn’t put it there either!
Please feel free to share this post, at least for their sake. Thanks!