to think a wild bird getting mushed by a plane is nothing like losing a kid?

[flyingspaghettimonster]

Okay, I am posting here as I can't rant in a pmt fueled frenzy comment on facebook or I'll hurt my American friend's feelings... but she just posted the following link:-

www.wvec.com/my-city/norfolk/US-120702329.html

to an article stating that one of the breeding pair of fugly horrible eagles at the botanical gardens was killed by a plane. In the article one of the people who had studied the eyrie for ten years stated:-
?It?s about like losing one of your kids,? Lukei described.

Another bird watcher said they cried on hearing about it.

Okay, I guess if you are a bird lover or a patriotic American you might feel strongly about these birds, even though they are no longer an endangered species and are fairly frequent around here in Virginia. But to say it is like losing a kid?? Surely like losing a pet would be a better analogy...

Now all my facebook friends are talking about leaving road kill in the botanical gardens to make it easier for the Daddy eagle to feed the eaglets. I think this is kind of gross since it is a popular play place for local kids and surely not hygenic to throw maggoty gorey remains all over - surely the botanical garden staff will be better able to determine what the eagle needs to care for the nest?

I seem to be the only person who thinks 'thank goodness it didn't cause the plane to crash'...

YANBU.

It's very sad the bird died but nothing like losing a child.

You are entitled to think what you want as much as they are entitled to feel how they do.

It is an ill thought out comment to compare the loss of the birds to that of a child. But sometimes sentiment is over fed and increased between people.

You are right about leaving road kill. Eagles like to hunt and being preditors they live by 'survival of the fittest', as they are not rare birds i don't think that they should be interfered with and surely it would just feed the vermin.

I just read the comments on that link and I'm sorry but the person who wrote this "Oh, our prayers are with the daddy and babies at this time. That is so sad for them. She was such a good mother" and the person who wrote this "The hell with the airline passengers. Just work to ensure that in the future no more Eagles are hit" are just...I have no words.

It was a bird. It's a very sad story but come on! [eye roll]

I sympathise with the poor aircraft maintenance man who had to pick out all the feathers and any other mangled blood splattered bits from the engine

The comments are amazing!

But then we could twist this whole thing on its head and ask why humans are somehow more of a loss than an Eagle? Is it completely unfathomable that some people might feel it equally as big a loss as a human life?

At the end of the day, without these birds doesn't our eco system fuck up? And doesn't that surely make them equally as valuable as human beings? The one species that is single handedly destroying the planet?

I'm not a bleeding heart animal rights activist, just find that I feel YABU in the grand scheme of things IYSWIM.

Oh and of course I don't think it equals the loss of a human child to a human being, it is of course not the same.

I don't think the ecosystem would fuck up without the eagles, since they were almost extinct at one point and nothing really changed, but I get your point. I know, I am actually an animal lover, but I was just [cshock] at the comments over it.

But then, I think they are creepy, ugly birds anyhow. So I guess I am not as sympathetic as I could be. The ones at the zoo give me evils when I look at them and gesture their wings very rudely at me, so I might be biased...

I must admit that even I can't understand this one. But, although you'll all go nuts at me, if it were one of my dogs who had suffered this fate I'd be beside myself and probably prone to saying something very similar. I know too that when we lose one of the dogs I work with in rescue I certainly shed tears for them as although they're not mine I have invested time, effort and care in them and their welfare.

As offensive as the comments are to some and as hard as they are for this animal lover to understand in this particular context I guess we should be glad that there are people out there who care about our wildlife and who go the extra mile for them.

I think it's sad,particuarly for the people who watched and studied her for years. I adore birds of prey,but I don't think it compares with losing a child.

I had to euthanise a baby bird,not ten minutes ago,that my cat got,and I have to admit that I'm feeling a little sad about that at the moment.

How does a bird gesture its wings rudely? I am intrigued and amused.

I've been watching this webcam regularly. It has been fascinating, and I did feel irationally upset when I logged on today and saw the live feed of the empty nest swaying in the tree. The eagles were amazing to watch, close up.

Of course it is not reasonable to say it's like losing child, but people have been getting to know the 3 eaglets day by day, and probably in the way that people do anthropomorphise animals , start to feel maternal towards the eaglets.

So no need to be quite so scathing and dismissive about the death of the mother eagle.

The ornithologists have removed the chicks and will hand rear the before releasing them into the wild.

It's just hyperbole. They were upset. It's not up to you to police their feelings.