Disturbing Animal Abuse

Raven from Bards and Druids Website



Okay, I felt compelled to write this extra post because I don’t like any type of animal abuse and this includes birds. Today we discovered a dead raven in our backyard. Upon inspection, its demise was due to a gunshot wound in the right chest. This was very upsetting to me. As we were looking at it, two ravens were circling overhead squawking loudly in their guttural voices. They were probably its family. They are usually in groups of three back there, flying and riding the wind currents in unbelievable acrobatic displays.


I felt very sorry for this bird. We have ravens everywhere and they are so majestic and beautiful, even if they do bring bad omens, according to Indian legend.

Raven from Bards and Druids Website

Naturally, I wanted to do right by this bird and bury it, as I’ve done a hundred times with other birds that hit the windows of our house. My husband wouldn’t let me and hauled it out into the desert. When he left, I wanted to take a shovel out there and find it and bury it, but I didn’t. It’s almost 100 degrees today, but that is not what deterred me. He would be very upset with me I’m sure, and would probably be back here before I finished the job anyway.

We are sure that some boys who’ve been hunting behind the house killed it, although we didn’t see them do it. We caught them back there with guns a couple of days ago and my husband ran them off, telling them to stop hunting the wildlife back there. He followed them home where they took the guns inside and got on their bicycles instead.

He did call the local PD today and they came over, took a report, and looked at the dead bird, but I doubt they will do anything. But you can be sure I’ll be on the lookout for those boys. These kids, probably about 13 or 14, are always shooting at the quail back there. The birds come to drink in our yard because we put water out everywhere. This is the desert and they have to get water from somewhere.

I’m just so very disgusted right now. If I could wish a learning pox on the boys, I would do it. I really don’t care if we have hundreds of ravens and other creatures. It’s not right to kill them. They are only trying to live in this harsh environment.

Okay, I’ll get off the soapbox now.