I found a cat playing with a hummingbird, pretty badly injured. I got the bird into a safe place and covered it with branches so it could die in peace. It looked like it was on its way out. But now it’s been a few hours, and I went to make sure it was dead so I could bury it and he’s still alive! There’s no way this little guy is going to recover. What do I do? Mercy kill it? Just leave it in its dark safe place and let things run their course? I’m honestly leaning towards killing it.
The bird would be least stressed in a calm, dark area if you couldn’t transport it to a rehab facility. It’s possible that if it has cat-related injuries, it will acquire a serious bacterial infection and die from it. I would never, ever give it back to the cat. The small bird is probably leaving if it begins to wheeze. That’s when it might be best to execute with mercy.
I apologize so much. As a child, I used to do the exact same thing. I abandoned it to perish in the woods beside our home. I hope its tiny body did the right thing and shielded its consciousness from the suffering. Even now, I wouldn’t know what to do.
Personally, I believe that you ought not to have been involved in the first place. It was killed by a cat, then it spent hours slowly dying in the street. It will proceed regardless. Things happen in nature. Why make things more difficult?
If there’s no chance of recovery, I believe it’s preferable to kill the bird as soon as possible. I understand how awful you feel and will feel, so I’m sorry you have to cope with this.
Check to see if there is a local rescue group that can come get the bird and provide it the care it needs to recover.
In my garden yesterday, I saw a hawk fucking up a pigeon. They are a part of the food chain, but we are not, so I chose to let nature take its course even though I wanted to step in. There isn’t a supermarket for the Hawks to shop at.
The fact that healthy birds can typically fly away from cats may be helpful. If the bird was taken by the cat, it was probably already old, ill, or damaged.
I completely understand why you assisted the bird, and I would have probably followed suit, but chances are the bird wouldn’t have lived very long on its own. I hope this is clear. It’s late at my house and I don’t speak English as my first language.
Shooting the bird because you’re too lazy to watch your cat is the same as letting it run loose and letting it kill anything that isn’t part of the natural order of things. Logic would dictate that the cat should be kept indoors or given to an owner or shelter if the true intention is to lessen animal suffering and cruelty. Three indolent pet owners live in our neighborhood, and their cats destroy a great deal of the birds that we are attempting to keep safe.
Why are humans let cats outside to murder animals in this manner? I find it incomprehensible that pet owners believe they are exempt from accountability. Given complete freedom, cats can cause a great deal of harm to some of these creatures, which are already rather defenseless.
Since you stepped in, I believe you need to have taken it to the veterinarian or, if that’s not a possibility where you are, called animal control. Its misery might be ended humanely by any veterinarian.
Although I recognize that it can be challenging, if not impossible, to do so, a mercy killing is still preferable to allowing it to suffer for hours on end. I appreciate you placing him in a secure area to pass.