What the heck do you do? Anything?

[i]

How do you decide what to do (if anything) when you see a small injustice in your community that nonetheless bothers you?

There's a bird living in the local Safeway supermarket.

It's been there for months. I personally have seen it twice on two visits about a month and a half apart. Two different staff members have told me it's been stuck in there for months.

I can't help feeling bad for the poor thing. It's alone (aside from the humans) and all it can do is fly back and forth inside the store from time to time. It starts singing occasionally. It doesn't sound happy. This bothers me at an emotional level.

But something else also bothers me ... this bird is fat.

It's a grocery store, right? And there's a large, open produce section like you'd find in any typical North American grocery store, full of fruit, vegetables, etc.. There are also several shelves of bread products, with the top-most shelves (where you'd expect a bird to land) stocked with products too. You know the deal - bread, bagels, croissants - they're all up there, packaged in the usual super-thin, transparent plastic bags. The kind of plastic bags that even tiny bird claws go right through, allowing said claws to easily sink into the actual bread product. A beak would have even less of a problem piercing through the plastic. On occasion those claw-holes are going to be small enough that human shoppers won't notice them.

And of course a well fed bird poops a lot. And somehow I doubt it cares where it poops. Yum! Poop in the produce! That brocolli looks extra tasty now, doesn't it? Ooh ... and the grapes too! Wait ... are those beak-holes I see?

So far, no one at the store seems interested in dealing with it. I could stop by during the daytime and ask the manager if he has any plans to release the poor thing, and stop putting his customers at risk for some weird illnesses. I'm worried though - if I pressure the person about it, he or she may just kill it.

I hate situations like this. Do you care or not? Do you get involved or not? And if you do, how do you know they don't just leave a bowl of rat poison mixed in with bird seed somewhere? At least trapped in the store he or she is still alive. Help me out here, people.

 

[jtr1962]

You left out one choice-try to take the bird out yourself-assuming you know how. This is a tough call. I'm bothered way more when I see injustices to animals than to people. Around here we've had our hands full dealing with stray cats. We took in some, and found homes for others. There's still quite a few around, but they seem to be doing fine. We also feed the birds (I hope that isn't what the stray cats are eating ). I would never, ever call the local humane society in a case like this, or for stray cats. I think they give a cat or dog 24 or 48 hours before euthanizing it. I don't agree that healthy, adoptable animals should be killed, and I certainly wouldn't call them under any circumstances because of this. Far better to feed a stray, or try to win its trust and either take it in or find a home for it. At worst, just let it fend for itself. At least it's alive and maybe someone else might give it a home.

Regarding the bird, it is a health code violation that sooner or later must be dealt with. Also, I'm not sure if the bird would even be able to survive in the wild any more after getting acclimated to an abundant, always available source of food. Care for a new pet? I think it might come down to that.

 

[Fushigi]

Look for a no-kill shelter in the area and see if they'd be willing to extract the bird. Failing that, talk to the store manager, then the public health dept., then Safeway corporate.

Overall, any extraction that lets the bird be adopted or sees it released to a natural habitat is preferred to having the bird killed or just letting it be.

As an aside, I've seen birds inside Sams Club, supermarkets, etc. for many years and have never noticed droppings, claw marks, or beak holes in anything I've ever purchased.

 

[Mercutio]

It's probably well-fed on whatever the heck gets dropped/spilled in there, and it's protected from predators and the elements. Its life could be worse.

Just the same, I think I'd ask the humane society what to do about it.

 

[sechs]

Catch it and kill it. This bird is not only a hazard to the health of people, it is a hazard to itself.

 

[Tea]

It may well be there by choice. City-adapted birds - it's quite likely an English House Sparrow, a species that has been spread by humans to most of the larger cities on the globe and is now, paradoxically, declining in its native habitat - can get very smart.

Me, I'd let it do its own sweet thing.

 

[bahngeist]

To put matters into perspective: if the bird were caught and kept in a no-kill shelter, it would be kept in a cage or, at best, an enclosure. If if were adopted, same thing. From the bird's perspective, having a supermarket as its 'cage' probably isn't too bad a deal given the alternatives. To let it out into the wild would be its very quick demise.

And yes, having it in the store is probably a health code violation. But how different is the situation from open air markets, particularly those with an abundant amount of pigeons in the area -- hmmm. Regardless, anybody who doesn't rinse their vegetables/fruit after bringing it back home perhaps deserves the possible garnish.

I'm not saying that the bird shouldn't be caught and removed, but what harm is being done with leaving it where it is? And chances are this one bird is one of many, since the building's ventilation may be providing the means by which birds can gain entry (all it takes is a loose or torn grill).

 

[jtr1962]

City-adapted birds - it's quite likely an English House Sparrow, a species that has been spread by humans to most of the larger cities on the globe and is now, paradoxically, declining in its native habitat - can get very smart.

So do city-adapted squirrels (and house-adapted orangutans ). We have two squirrels who derive a good portion of their diet from birdseed. One of them hangs upside down from the metal bird feeder hanger on the garage wall in order to get its meal. Unfortunately, until it has its fill the birds won't come anywhere near the feeder. BTW, I think the birds are mostly sparrows, with an occasional robin or bluebird throw in.

 

[Tea]

Oh dear. Poor little city-boy.

Do you know where grapes come from?

They grow out in a field, in the open air. Yup. Right out there amongst the beetles and the spiders and the grasshoppers and, yes, the birds that eat the beetles and the spiders and the grasshopers. They do that because they are a natural food, with real vitamins and real fibre and - yup - real bird poop.

There is - astonishingly - no plastic wrap on a naturally-growing grape, no irradiation, no added chemicals, no growth hormones, no anti-biotics. Eeeagh! The thing is dirty! It might have soil on it! Good brown earth! How unhygenic!

Gahh .......

Where do you think humans came from in the first place? What do you think we have spent the last 20 million years adapting our bodies and our digestive systems to eat? Why do you think the average American is unhealthy, grossly overweight, and suffers from a heightened expectancy of allergies, heart disease, and digestive disorders?

Because the birds that eat millions of tons of insect pests a year sometimes poop on the grapes?

Or because the average American eats vast amounts of over-processed, highly modified, unhealthy, sterile-wrapped junk food?

 

[Buck]

Oh dear. Poor little city-boy.

Do you know where grapes come from?

They grow out in a field, in the open air. Yup. Right out there amongst the beetles and the spiders and the grasshoppers and, yes, the birds that eat the beetles and the spiders and the grasshopers. They do that because they are a natural food, with real vitamins and real fibre and - yup - real bird poop.

There is - astonishingly - no plastic wrap on a naturally-growing grape, no irradiation, no added chemicals, no growth hormones, no anti-biotics. Eeeagh! The thing is dirty! It might have soil on it! Good brown earth! How unhygenic!

Gahh .......

Where do you think humans came from in the first place? What do you think we have spent the last 20 million years adapting our bodies and our digestive systems to eat? Why do you think the average American is unhealthy, grossly overweight, and suffers from a heightened expectancy of allergies, heart disease, and digestive disorders?

Because the birds that eat millions of tons of insect pests a year sometimes poop on the grapes?

Or because the average American eats vast amounts of over-processed, highly modified, unhealthy, sterile-wrapped junk food?

I think that should be a different poll Tea.

 

[Tea]

bahngeist has the meat of the matter:

anybody who doesn't rinse their vegetables/fruit after bringing it back home perhaps deserves the possible garnish.

Exactly.

Remember also that the real risk of eating unwashed food is not in a little bird garnish now and then. No, the real risk is the ingestion of pesticides, herbicides, anti-fungal agents, colouring agents, and all the other crap you stupid humans habitually pollute your food with. Washing probably doesn't help much with those deliberately-added poisons - more than likely, they have already soaked into the flesh of the fruit. But you wash anyway, because not washing is stupid.

 

[jtr1962]

Why do you think the average American is unhealthy, grossly overweight, and suffers from a heightened expectancy of allergies, heart disease, and digestive disorders?

Because the birds that eat millions of tons of insect pests a year sometimes poop on the grapes?

Or because the average American eats vast amounts of over-processed, highly modified, unhealthy, sterile-wrapped junk food?

Amen to that. That's also why we grow some of our own vegetables, especially tomatoes. The store bought stuff is inedible. Yes, we wash them before eating. I'm sure some of them get covered with bird poop. Too bad we don't have room for a few nut trees (especially almonds and walnuts), or perhaps a spaghetti tree. Nothing like freshly picked spaghetti. :mrgrn:

I'm getting more and more sick of eating processed crap myself. On many levels it just doesn't satisfy.

 

[Buck]

That is why you grow your own fruit and vegetables.

Summer is coming, tomatoes will be ripe. Yum.

 

[Bartender]

Processed can be good . . . if it is beer or wine.

 

[i]

Point taken about what the produce has been through already before arriving at the store. Then again, it's not looking that great when it arrives anyway ... a final dose of bird poop isn't going to help.

Also, do many of you wash your baked goods before eating? :wink:

I'll see if I can take some surreptitious photos of the poor guy this week.

 

[flagreen]

The answer is simple - Shop at the A&P.

 

[Pradeep]

Tranquiliser gun + dart = happiness for all.

 

[its.fubar]

leave a window open it will find the way out itself because it has something to do with outside and inside pressure you know bird's are quite clever like that, don't worry it will find the freedom of the sky again.

 

[sechs]

Tranquiliser gun + dart = happiness for all.

No. KILL.