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ladyhawk21 — Trash Tragedy
Published: 2007-03-29 13:44:34 +0000 UTC; Views: 1057; Favourites: 17; Downloads: 5
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Description
Another tragic incident involving beach trash. This guy, another bird still in baby feathers has a huge fish hook stuck in his leg. That pink bump is the shrimp bait that the fisherman had been using. What happened was that the irresponsible fisherman who caught the bird just cut it loose with four feet of fishing line still attached. The bird was really friendly, who knows, maybe it knew I could help. I took a few pictures to show people that they had to be responsible, and then I borrowed the first aid kid from the pier manager, and had a bystander hold the bird while I pulled out the hook and applied antiseptic ointment.Don't try this unless you have been trained! I work at a wildlife center, and I have done this before! If you find an injured animal, wear gloves and capture it if you can, or contact your local game warden or wildlife center. Take it to a trained professional like a vet or a wildlife rehab center where they can help it!
Please fish responsibly! Don't leave your hooks and lines laying around where animals can get hurt! And pick up your crap, don't leave it behind!!!
closeup of the hook here: [link]
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Comments: 38
OMG! Thank God you were there. Poor thing. And this is why most beaches have those recycle fishing line and hooks bins. And people don't use them. I've picked up tons of fishing line off the beaches. There's so much line. People who don't pick up their hooks or lines should not be able to fish at all. These poor creatures are getting hurt by a human sport. I hate fishing. And of course some lines get snagged on stuff, so go down and get it. My friends have dove down into a lake once and pulled up tons of fishing hooks that were stuck to the rocks. This photo reminds me of Leggy the Gull I saw at the beach the other day. The gull only had one leg.
[link]
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this is a great shot. it makes me really sad though, about the hook and how trash left behind is hurting the animals and wildlife. :[ however, beautiful bird and wonderful photograph of him.
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It is sad, which is why I've got several of the injured bird pictures up here. I want people to know what happens when they don't keep our beaches clean!
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it's wonderful that you were able to save it. Great work! (both the shot and dislodging the hook)
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Glad that you're trying to help. I also really can't stand people's carlessness that causes innocent animals to suffer. Great shot as well, nice lighting and colours.
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omg that's so nasty! I mean, how irrespondible ppl can be??
Not fair! Poor little thing
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Framed wonderfully, I love pelicans lol. Great shot.
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But, but, I like leaving my fishing line laying around. *Runs off and crys*
Very sad story though, I hate it when people think that there better than animals.
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i always get such hell from people when they see me going along the shoreline picking up left behind fishing twine.........if only those people would see what happens to it when another creature gets caught in it! when i lived in tennessee i helped rescue a canadian goose who'd had BOTH it's legs caught. unfortunately? no vet would take him in so i had to drive him 2 hours to a wildlife game rescue so his legs didn't have to both be amputated. they were so swelled up the skin almost had to be peeled back to get the twine off. sad.........grrrrrrr
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If people are giving you hell for doing good like that, they're just plain stupid! I'm glad you were able to get the goose to a center. Sometimes if an animal is caught like that for a while, the skin grows around whatever is caught. That's tough to fix, so it's a good thing you got him in fast!
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surprising with the amount of irresponible people harming such beautiful animals.
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It really is sad that some people just don't care, I agree
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You should post this as a news feature to help make more people aware.
So glad you were able to help, it probably would have died if you were not there to rescue it.
Beautiful photo by the way.
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Thank you so much, I appreciate the 
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Your welcome, I love animals, and I hate to see things like that happen.
The tragedy we inflict carelessly on nature.
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I'm so glad that at least this story had a happy ending; so many don't. We were able to help a young magpie once with a child elastic hair band around it's leg. It was such a relief to know that we could help and not watch it suffer.
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It's sad too, because even though I was able to help this bird, there were so many others that I know are still suffering, like the turnstones, many of whom are missing toes and in some cases entire feet from being tangled in fishing lines. Thank you for the fav though!
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It's a great picture!
I'm glad you helped the poor bird.
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He was very photogenic and well behaved
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You rock. You are wonderful to help the poor injured bird. I am so glad you were able to assist it. Congratulations. Lots of love to you for caring and helping 
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aw thanks! I do what I can, but I still wish I could do more... Thank you so much for the watch and the favs!!!!!
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This makes me want to cry!! Thank goodness you were there. Years ago when I was just a small tot, we were trout fly fishing on Lake Taupo, and my Dad hooked a seagull. The seagull was screaming. Dad just reeled the gull in until it was close enough to throw a sack over it's head and get the hook out (he did both of these as gently as possible). He NEVER fly fished again - he just couldn't face the possibility of hurting another bird, or some kids etc...
I can't believe a fisherman would just cut the line without saving the whole bird.
Cheers
Robyn
PS - I have a few other stories about birds - my friends call me the bird whisperer as they seem to come to me for help when they're sick, ill or injured.
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It's really awful, and the worst part is, the fishermen do it to sea turtles too, even though there are signs up that say to ask for help if you hook a turtle. Yay for bird whisperers!
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poor thing, there is a major problem over here with swans and the plastic rings that hold 4 cans of drink together. People leave the plastic rings and they get stuck round swans necks
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The worst part about those swans too is that all people need to do is cut the rings before they throw them out. That happens to ducks here in heavily populated areas. So sad.
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problem is though is that some people are just too lazy to do it, makes me sick
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I agree. buggers.
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