Wednesday 17 August 2011

Coping With One Leg







I am still fuming about the disgraceful action of Moray coast group vets for putting down a viable bird life after being told not to do so ! Of all the bird species that could cope best with one leg I would say the Seagull is the most suited of all the birds I can think of. It has a broad webbed foot centred under the body, a large wingspan allowing it to take off from land and water easily. It does not use trees or bushes, spends a lot of it's time on water and flat surfaces such as sandy beaches. I also know from experience that they can walk quite well on one leg, for I watched Steven my own gull friend of 13 months, walk across the lawn one day on one leg - just because he wanted to. I know there are reasons why certain birds and conditions could not cope at all with one leg and their lives would not be viable. The vets culture is perhaps where the problem lies, maybe the separation and distinction between what they consider to be domestic pet species and the wild ones ? This makes it easier for them to put to sleep anything that is not considered human friendly, unlike a budgie, parrot or canary. These of course are wild birds in their own countries adopted by humans as pets. Vets practice are business's and we go there as paying customers, we expect them to do the best for our pets and would not accept for one moment them putting to sleep our budgie parrot or canary, should it have a broken leg. We are not talking complicated invasive surgery here, the biggest risk would be the anesthetics - a risk we would all accept given the choice. This gull should have been given the same treatment as any pet bird, it would have been paid for and my experienced aftercare facilities were there for a full recovery too. It was a callous act to put it to sleep.

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