this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2024
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Great news whenever we can reduce poisoning. It is heartbreaking to see whole nests of beautiful raptors pass one by one after sharing a meal.
One of the 2 Great Horned Owl babies we watched grow up on Superbowl died of poisoning this year, not even halfway to its first birthday. ๐
At first I started reading this as a satirical comment about velociraptors until you got to the owls part and yeah actually that is really depressing.
Some of the rescues that don't shy away from showing some of the injuries and illnesses we cause animals have videos or animals coming in with severe poisoning. The poisons are designed to not be digestible, so the poison accumulates in the body over time. Poisoned and dying rodents are easier to catch, so a bird can stockpile a number of poisoned animals to share with its family.
Once you see the effects of poison, especially on something you never intended to poison, it is very unforgettable. It is a terrible and painful way to die, and most people using poison likely only will since things will die out of sight and out of mind.
I've probably seen it at least a dozen times in animals that I think are very beautiful and important, and it never gets easier to see.
Some people may laugh about giving rats birth control, but it's a real serious thing in protecting predators that reproduce in low numbers.
To end on a less serious note, even a bitey razor chicken like a velociraptor does not deserve to be poisoned. Keep your cats indoors and your dogs on a leash and you will be fine. They're too small to kill you, they'll leave you with some nasty cuts, but they have hollow bones, so they can't take a punch worth shit. ๐