the kindness of the small farmer

[boxofdelights]

I don't know whether she was a chicken farmer or a smallholder who had some chickens, but she had at least one chicken pen, with an electric door that had stuck open a few inches. She didn't think a hawk would get in there before she got it fixed. But goshawks do run along the ground, like their velociraptor ancestors, and the immature Northern Goshawk that crept under the stuck-open door killed five chickens before dawn. At least five; the farmer brought us five dead chickens in a bucket to see if we had any use for them, but that might have been just the ones the goshawk didn't eat. Anyway, it got into the chicken pen, but couldn't figure out how to get out, and scraped itself up trying, so the farmer brought it to us, along with its leftovers.

It only has some abrasions, so we should be able to release it soon; the farmer asked us kindly not to release it right near her place.

Comments

[randomdreams]

Oh, man, she is a good person to not take her frustration out on the poor dumb raptor.

[boxofdelights]

A good person and a salutary reminder that there is a lot to love in the human race! I suppose amaebi would say that we are all worthy of love, and I believe that but I have a hard time believing it, you know what I mean?

[amaebi]

I'm not sure I think we're all worthy of love, though I may well have said so, badly. I guess I don't think love is merit-based. And that we all need love. And that it is horrible to be deprived of love on merit grounds or any others.

And I think we can all choose to embrace and creation over competition-as-such and destruction. Though I don't think the odds are in favor of, say, President Joffrey doing so.

That certainly sounds like a lovesome poultrywoman. (I wonder if she's a witch? Poultrywomen are often witches in folklore.)

[randomdreams]

I feel like about 95% of people are worthy of love, even if I may wildly disagree with much of what they say.
I personally know people who aren't, though.
So I celebrate the people who are.

Case in point: my coworker, who, faced with the same situation, but the chickens had not yet gotten attacked but it was clear that the attempt was going to be continued, so he shot the bobcat. He moved into the deep mountains, put in a chicken coop, and is shooting anything that disturbs them. He'd be the first to criticize someone who moves in near an airport and then complains about the noise, though.

[conuly]

Oh, ffs. Surely there's a better solution like, idk, better fencing?

[conuly]

Poor dumb bird. Lucky her that the human had sympathy for her plight!

[boxofdelights]

Very lucky. Probably going to spend the rest of its life dreaming of the place of All The Chickens.