Poor Pigeon

This one I know didn't make it. I found him a few minutes before starting this video. Here he is resting in my hand, and his left leg is so badly injured that I couldn't tell whether he even still had it (the vet said he did, but I had been unwilling to put him through the agony of a close examination myself.) He was eating after this, and his wounds (about half of his tail had been ripped off) quit bleeding shortly after I picked him up. I didn't see his left leg come down while he was loose on the ground, hoping around on his right leg, and he couldn't fly properly. I believe his injuries were inflicted by a human wielding a safety boot at about 09:00, I found him at 09:20 and held him for about 90 minutes like this before attempting (very successfully) to feed him. I took him to the Animal Clinic in downtown Calgary, where he was euthanized at 12:20. Some of the people walking by were caring, but some were pretty ignorant, warning me about his lice and even rabies. I found him in a location where it was extremely unlikely anything wild or accidental could have caused his injuries. Had I not looked after him, I'd say 90% chance he would have been killed by another human, either in hatred or mercy, and about a 10% chance that the local magpies would have had him for lunch.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• wild
• pigeon
• injury
• euthanized
• wildlife
• calgary

[Aff01000001]

Too bad it was euthanized... you could've kept him

[featherwinglove]

@Aff01000001 Thanks for the thought, and I would have if I could have. He was in awful shape: had I filmed the damage, the video would probably have been flagged. I don't think he would have survived, even as a pet.

[Aff01000001]

@featherwinglove Well... at least he didn't suffer anymore....