The Heartlessness Of Some People

[Kirislin]

From your description it sounds like a Purple Swamp hen to me. Good on you for doing the right thing.

CrazyCresties posted a pic of one here

http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?s=&a...t&p=5170613

Edited February 26, 2011 by Kirislin

[persephone]

Sorry about the bird...

[Dogsrawesome]

Atleast he wasnt left there to suffer. You did the right thing i wish more people were like this poor birdy R.I.P

[corvus]

Birds are very susceptible to stress, and what's more, if they are hit by cars they often break wings. Sometimes they can be saved if they have broken bones, but often their flight will be compromised. Then again, sometimes they're lucky. We found a maggie on the side of the road when driving through Broken Hill a couple of years back. It had just been flipped through the slipstream of a car and was just dazed. Took it to the RSPCA so they could keep it quiet and safe for a few hours until it recovered its senses.

Actually, when we went to Port Douglas on holidays we also rescued an injured bird. Got the hotel to give us a box and a towel and had several goes chasing it down. It was injured, but still mobile!

The worst I've seen is a car that clipped a monitor lizard just out of Darwin. They barely swerved to avoid it then didn't even stop even though it was safe to. We were right behind and pulled over and got the poor thing off the road. It was obviously in a great deal of pain and didn't have long for this world. Couldn't believe the folks that had hit it didn't stop. It's so wrong to be unaware of the damage you do to other animals, even if it was unintentional.

[lovemymutts]

I'm another one for the Purple Swamp Hen ID.

I always stop to move (larger) dead things off the road if it could cause an accident, always check pouches & help anything injured if I can. But even dogs alot of people won't stop/slow down for, I know!

If it's a bird with a smashed wing that is beyond repair I take it to a vet (if I can) for euthanasia, I do not agree with keeping one winged previously wild birds in captivity for the rest of their lives, there is a difference between being alive & having quality of life. We have to think about the animals themselves in these situations not our own egos/conscience. And if there are badly injured adult roos I will always phone the police to come out & destroy them.

I once stopped for a roo that was sitting unusually close to the road, it wasn't hopping well at all, couldn't jump a cyclone fence & I could see it was somehow injured but didn't know how badly. I had hazards on & was motioning for people to slow down but everyone just ignored me, not alot else I could do, it was their own stupid fault then if it decided to jump in front of their car. Two blokes pulled up in a ute with porn mags on their laps & trying to be heros said 'We'll just run it over again' yeh good on you knobheads! Anyway I called out friends who used to be rescuers for Aus Zoo & he just caught it in a big blanket. We took it to the vet for assessment & after having an xray done found it had been shot in the head but the idiots hadn't made sure it was dead. It had obviously been hopping around for weeks until it got so badly infected that it was too painful to function. It was humanely euthanased but it made me so angry. If you are going to go out shooting do it responsibly, as humanely as possible & make sure the animal is dead! How would we like to walk around with a bullet in our head for weeks on end?

Anyway rant over but I do think some of us should take a bit more responsibility sometimes within reason & not in a situation endangering our own lives.