Remember that peacock Suncoast Animal League rescued after some idiot shot it with a bow and arrow? It recovered and now lives on a sanctuary.
Another peacock wasn't so lucky.
"Late last week, a peacock was found dead on the roof of a home in the Greenbriar neighborhood. The body was removed and we took it to Enterprise Road Animal Hospital where x-rays (pictured) clearly show several pellets scattered throughout the bird's body," Rick Chaboudy, with Suncoast Animal League said.
"In the past two weeks, one peacock has been wounded and one peacock is dead. An arrow and then bullets," Chaboudy posted on Suncoast Animal League's Facebook page. "What’s next??!! And even scarier…who's next?"
If you know who's doing this, contact the Pinellas County Sheriff at 727-582-6200.
There's a poem about this kind of thing, and it isn't a happy poem, but it's what this whole thing reminds us of.
Formal Application
I shall begin by learning to throw
the knife, first at trees, until it sticks
in the trunk and quivers every time;
next from a chair, using only wrist
and fingers, at a thing on the ground,
a fresh ant hill or a fallen leaf;
then at a moving object, perhaps
a pine cone swinging on twine, until
I pot it at least twice in three tries.
Meanwhile, I shall be teaching the birds
that the skinny fellow in sneakers
is a source of suet and bread crumbs,
first putting them on a shingle nailed
to a pine tree, next scattering them
on the needles, closer and closer
to my seat, until the proper bird,
a towhee, I think, in black and rust
and gray, takes tossed crumbs six feet away.
Finally, I shall coordinate
conditioned reflex and functional
form and qualify as Modern Man.
You see the splash of blood and feathers
and the blade pinning it to the tree?
It's called an "Audubon Crucifix."
The phrase has pleasing (even pious)
connotations, like Arbeit Macht Frie,
"Molotov Cocktail," and Enola Gay.
—Don Baker, 1982
Contact Cathy Salustri here.
This article appears in May 24-31, 2018.