Traumatised

"I heard a ruckus outside. I looked out into the garden. There was an enormous bird sitting on top of one of my hens," said a still traumatised Cheryl. She keeps hens. She'd just recently bought a pair or rare birds, a hen & her mate, for breeding purposes. It was on this hen the bird was sitting.

"It was a Harris hawk," she continued. "It belonged to a man who was hunting for rabbits with it in a field just across the way. It must of mistaken the hen for a rabbit. It just sat there, waiting for its owner to retrieve it. We tried to get it move off by poking it with a broom handle but it wouldn't go. When the owner came over, he nonchalantly said not to worry. He was insured so he would be able to pay for the injured hen."

This did nothing for Cheryl. Her birds are her pets. She loves them dearly & she'd had this one long enough to have named it & learnt its character.

All this happened on Sunday. Needless to say Cheryl instantly got on to the vet to see if the bird could be saved. But no, the injuries were too extensive. Her hen had one broken wing, one broken leg & the hawk's talons had penetrated into the hen's neck, damaging her nervous system. It had to be humanely killed. Needless to say the vet charged a lot as it was out of hours.

"The worst of it is I will have to find a new home for the cock as he won't be happy partnerless. So that's going to cost me yet more. Then I've got to locate another pair which isn't going to be easy when they are such a rare breed."

Cheryl didn't blame the hawk. It was a beautiful bird, only doing what came naturally & what it had been trained to do. It was the owner she was annoyed with.

"To keep the foxes away I have a Jack Russell terrier who lives in the garden. Even if the dog had seen the bird, he would probably have been hurt or taken too. And just imagine if the hawk had gone next door. My neighbour is a childminder. She often lets the young crawlers & toddlers play on the grass with the pet rabbit. The children could have been attacked, certainly hurt. At the very least they may have been traumatised by watching the rabbit being torn apart by the hawk in front of them. It's not even a British bird! And this man seemed to think it didn't matter!"

Maybe the situation was all the worse because Cheryl is a vegetarian on principle. She'll eat the eggs, but the hens are always allowed to live out their old age, long after they are past laying eggs on an economic basis. She doesn't believe in causing pain to any creature, although she does accept nature can be cruel. This had all been too much for her.