RIP Burt

The Wildlife Rescue centre called this evening to let me know that the bird I brought in, Burt (a Rock Pigeon*), had been put down. Despite being in good spirits and not having a concussion, the fracture was in a bad spot in his thigh and the pain was too much for him. Fixing the leg wasn't an option, because of where the break was located.

I found Burt on Friday at 5:30, on my way home from the library. I watched him walk determinedly into a lane of traffic, but turned away when a car sped towards him. I didn't see him get hit, but I did see feathers and saw him waddle painfully into a snowbank in the gutter. He tried to make himself really small, but he was in the gutter of one of the busiest intersections in the city. I scooped him up and felt his little heart beating fast, but he didn't struggle or flap his wings. I put him into my cloth bag and carried him home.

I've dealt with injured birds before, so I knew what to do when I got him home:

*Put the bird in a cardboard box with a lid and breathing holes (I covered the bottom of the box with a roll's worth of wadded up toilet paper for a soft, nest-like feel).
*Keep the bird in a warm, dark and quiet room.
*Don't handle the bird or feed it, just let it relax in its box.
*Get it to wildlife rescue as soon as possible for care (or a humane passing).

It's really amazing how much a bird will calm down once its in a covered box. I had to turn the light on briefly and Burt started flapping his wings almost immediately. I turned the lights off and he calmed down again.

To my surprise, Burt lived through the night (they often die of shock or internal injuries), even though there was a little streak of blood in the bottom of the box. He obviously had a terribly broken leg, but he was in good spirits and quite calm. I drove him to Wildlife Rescue as soon as I could, and they took him right in for assessment and treatment. The admitting vet was pretty cute, so that didn't hurt either. He said it might be necessary to put Burt down, but at the very least it would be quick and painless if so. Much better than waiting to die in a snowbank on a busy street, at the mercy of vehicles or sadistic humans.

The WRA is one of my absolute favourite (animal) charities. Their facilities, right in the middle of a beautiful regional park, are excellent and the work they do is awesome. They deal with oil spill birds and all kinds of wildlife emergencies. They even took care of an injured wolverine that wandered into a suburb. This was such a rare opportunity (wolverine are almost never seen, never mind handled) that vets and scientists came from all over to study the creature and its rehabilitation.

*I hesitate to say that Burt was a pigeon, because the reactions I get when I say "pigeon" are often negative. "But they're diseased rats-with-wings!" you might be thinking to yourself. Well, this bird didn't appear diseased (just injured), and I wore gloves and kept him segregated in the entryway of the house. Humans and companion animals like cats and dogs can transmit scary diseases and parasites too, but I don't generally recoil in horror at the thought of helping one of them. And for the record, had Burt been a human, I would have stopped to help him too. No creature deserves to suffer.

Link: What to do if you find injured birds or other wildlife.