a comment about bird rehab

I've been reading several articles about the pros and cons of doing bird and wildlife rehab. Those opposed to the measure say first that the birds are often so stressed out that they don't survive long past the rehab, and second that they almost never breed post-rehab.

Startling information, in and of itself. This serious disaster, this tremendous onslaught to a bird's life cycle, affects not just today but the rest of its life. I think it prompts one to ask if we humans are just so much more highly evolved than birds, or if there are more of us out there than we realize who are walking wounded. But that's an aside.

I'm pro rehabilitation, though there may be some selfish reasons for it. First, I think it's important to face the true measure of what we've done. I think it changes people, even if momentarily. People should be shocked and depressed by a shocking and depressing situation. It will not kill us.

Second, though the rehab efforts have shown to have unimpressive long term effects, I think it's good for education. Doctors make the distinction between the first heart transplant and the first SUCCESSFUL heart transplant. They weren't the same event. They also gained tremendous insight in caring for the wounded during VietNam, when their skills were called into play in new and unique situations. With rescue efforts going on in the Gulf, more will be learned. Are we truly such that all we are concerned about is the bottom line? It's an unscheduled disaster. Let's not do a profit analysis on it. We certainly can't make it go away. So let's learn from it what we can.

I feel better about that than I do about the prospect of tossing up my hands, saying all is futile, and walking away from helpless and dying animals. Yes, they will repopulate, and in time all will be rebalanced. But we would have learned nothing.

My opinion, for what it's worth.

-Laura