The Law of Nature
Nature can be cruel. But there is a certain elegance to its rules. One life has to be taken for another to survive. I do my best not to interfere with this so that’s why when I end killing something for no reason, I take it to heart.
We have mice. Many mice. And ground squirrels too. I have no problem defending my house and outbuildings from the little critters. We have traps set up around the buildings. Every other day or so we catch a few in the trap. When a ground squirrel (and it’s always the striped ground squirrels, never the gophers) digs a hole too close to the house, we stick a garden hose down it and drown it out. The mice and gophers have plenty of field to live in. I have no issues with them running around in the trees, or scampering out in the field or playing down in the dugout. Just stay away from my house.
However, every once and awhile we catch something in the trap that we didn’t intend to. This morning when I took the dog out for a walk, I saw a tiny little sparrow fluttering around with a trap stuck on its leg. My heart sank. I took the dog back in and went to go see if there was anything I could do. When it saw me, it tried to fly away but only ended up going a foot or so. After a few more steps, it stopped trying to fly away. I crouched down, reaches over and opened the trap. It just laid there staring at me. I didn’t stick around. I took the trap and put it back in place.
When I got inside I told my husband what had happened. Usually when he sees an injured animal, he dispatches it right away as to not let it suffer. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. So he came out to see what he could do. However, once we got out there again, the bird was gone. I felt a bit better after that. Course that feeling was gone when we went back to the house and saw the salamander that was caught in one of the other traps.
I don’t know if that bird is going to have much of a chance with a busted up leg. Maybe it will end up as an easy meal for a hawk or a coyote or what have you. But that’s life.
We have mice. Many mice. And ground squirrels too. I have no problem defending my house and outbuildings from the little critters. We have traps set up around the buildings. Every other day or so we catch a few in the trap. When a ground squirrel (and it’s always the striped ground squirrels, never the gophers) digs a hole too close to the house, we stick a garden hose down it and drown it out. The mice and gophers have plenty of field to live in. I have no issues with them running around in the trees, or scampering out in the field or playing down in the dugout. Just stay away from my house.
However, every once and awhile we catch something in the trap that we didn’t intend to. This morning when I took the dog out for a walk, I saw a tiny little sparrow fluttering around with a trap stuck on its leg. My heart sank. I took the dog back in and went to go see if there was anything I could do. When it saw me, it tried to fly away but only ended up going a foot or so. After a few more steps, it stopped trying to fly away. I crouched down, reaches over and opened the trap. It just laid there staring at me. I didn’t stick around. I took the trap and put it back in place.
When I got inside I told my husband what had happened. Usually when he sees an injured animal, he dispatches it right away as to not let it suffer. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. So he came out to see what he could do. However, once we got out there again, the bird was gone. I felt a bit better after that. Course that feeling was gone when we went back to the house and saw the salamander that was caught in one of the other traps.
I don’t know if that bird is going to have much of a chance with a busted up leg. Maybe it will end up as an easy meal for a hawk or a coyote or what have you. But that’s life.
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