August 20th, 2009
I opened the door last night to my good friend Chris rushing past me into the apartment, asking did I have a phone? Yes, I said, and followed him out on to the deck, where he dashed to the far railing and looked over, explaining he’d just watched someone intentionally run over a large seagull that had been scavenging for dropped fries on the road below my building. I joined him at the railing and watched the bird, partially crushed, struggling to move. Its head was up and it was looking around. Who do you call in this situation? We didn’t know. As we watched, a second car drove over the obviously living bird, and yet it continued trying to move.
Some hurried googling failed to net us anyone to call, so we decied we had to go deal with it ourselves. I don’t even own a shovel – grabbing a cardboard box and an old towel we dashed back to the elevator and hurried to the street with only a half formed notion of what we would do. By the time we got there, the bird had finally died of its extensive injuries. Its intestines were splayed out around it on the concrete and there was blood. I’m glad it died – it could never have lived through those injuries. But it was probably in agony and terror for its final ten minutes of life. I had made up my mind in the elevator that I would try to break its neck because watching it look around and try to drag itself off the road I knew it was in misery, but I have never done that before and was afraid of actually carrying out the act. I admit I was relieved it was dead by the time we arrived.
Traffic was light and both cars could easily have avoided the bird, but chose not to. Chris reports that the first driver actually gunned it and turned the vehicle to hit the seagull. I don’t understand why anyone would do that – it’s so pointless and cruel. I hope the second car was trying to euthanize it, but I don’t know.
And in my apartment right now are the four little finches I am still watching, well cared for pets, much less intelligent than the seagull – I don’t know quite what I want to say here, but it seems to me that stupid loved pets make much more sympathetic victims than seagulls. The driver of the first car wouldn’t come into my apartment and crush one of these birds under his shoe, even though this is quite analogous to running over the big seagull with his car. Are animals only valuable when they belong to a person? Can we only empathize with animals we personally know?
And what kind of asshole deliberately crushes a bird under the wheels of his car? This guy is out there. I don’t know who he is but I’m angry with him.