Cleaning the birds...is this helping?

[femrap]

Maybe by cleaning the birds, we are merely helping the human's conscience and forcing the birds into a slow and painful death?

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,693359,00.html

I can't bear to see animals suffer a slow death.

In fact, I'm all for assisted suicide for people as well.

The statistics from WWF on another spill are heartbreaking....none survived.

[Jennicut]

1. That is very sad, not good statistics at all. I do think sometimes

we make things worse by trying to help. Many experts on oil spills also say not to overly clean the marshlands as well:

Oil Spill Fallout: 'You Can't Pressure-Wash a Marsh'

(May 21) -- Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has been arguing ever since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up a month ago that the best way to protect his state's delicate coastal wetlands is to wall the oil out. His plan is to dredge the Gulf of Mexico and construct temporary islands to protect the marshes. It can seem like an attempt to defy the tide with sandcastles.

But as the gulf oil spill reached the wetlands this week, its toxic slick brought a new perspective on his proposal. For all the effort required to shield the marshes with emergency dredging, it could well be a better course than waiting and having to remove the oil afterward.

Salt-water marshes rank as the most environmentally sensitive places on Earth to clean up after a spill, according to a scale devised by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. Louisiana's marshes are especially vulnerable as they serve as nursery to virtually all the fish, birds and wildlife that inhabit the gulf -- and it is now nesting season. So cleanup crews will have to tread a fine line between helping the marshes recover and hastening their demise; mop-up techniques that may work fine on the sandy beaches of Mississippi, Alabama or Florida could be fatal to a wetland. http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/louisiana-marshes-will-pose-challenges-for-gulf-oil-spill-cleanup/19485841

[femrap]

2. All of this death and destruction....

I think I'll go out and feed my local birds and squirrels.

Thank you for the info on the marshlands.

[Jennicut]

3. The most beautiful thing I saw recently was a fox in my aunt's yard.

Earth has a lot of beautiful creatures on it that we can enjoy, if we don't destroy them first. I think I will go hug my cat.

[femrap]

14. Me, too

He's going on 18 years old. He's been there for me for so long.

[upi402]

4. Public hangings of BP execs would help

:sarcasm:

[muffin1]

6. I think

you hit the 'sarcasm' smilie by mistake.:evilgrin:

[upi402]

9. oh no

my secret's out!!!
:fistbump:

[Sal Minella]

12. When I made a suggestion like this

I received a knuckle-rapping and the post was deleted.

Or maybe the :sarcasm: label renders you immune?

[upi402]

13. why

i assure you that i do not know what you are talking about!

:evilgrin:

[femrap]

15. I guess you

had to put that :sarcasm: sign up. I might find it a tad comforting though.

[Shadow Creature]

5. if that is true

Then all that time and effort would be better put to use doing something else wouldn't it?

Cleaning rocks is not it.

[FirstLight]

7. I agree...it is so hard to watch

I asked this question in the early stages of the gusher: How long does it take to die from this stuff? hours? days? i can't imagine the suffocation and drowning in sludge in the lungs... :cry:

(the BP execs and Cheny and the MMR folks should all have to go and sit in the muck naked till they get sick too)

this is only the beginning, huge plumes of death swirling through the atlantic, how many animals will die in the entire ocean? How long till dead animals wash up on britain's beaches too?...the international community hasn't even begun to scream about this yet.

I just wish there was some sane way to really help the animals, to really clean up this stuff...I fear we just don't know how, and it is going to be a big part of our demise. sooner or later, we will ALL see just how much something as small as phytoplankton really affects us...

[femrap]

18. It's

Karma...all those damn wars for oil. Now look...we're swirling in it and it's killing all that it touches.

Just so the oil boyz could make billions.

Mother Nature has had it. She will show who has the power. Their money will do them no good.

This will awaken even the most willfully ignorant Rush listener to what this planet faces.

I hate to drive anymore...it takes gas and oil. I recycle so to feel a bit better.

I just want the animals and birds to not suffer needlessly. They are truly one of the few joys we have on this Earth.

[BeFree]

8. Time

If the birds sit there for days before being rescued, as most have, then success is diminished.

We've got to have patrols out on the water with the sole purpose of wildlife rescue.

[SPedigrees]

10. Releasing the cleaned birds into the tainted environment bothers me.

They should contain them in a wildlife refuge or zoo aviary for several years until it is safe for them to return to their nesting grounds, which they certainly will do upon release. Otherwise the rehabbers are just wasting their time and resources.

[Quantess]

11. That's my issue.

Where are these birds supposed to go? Their habitat is destroyed.

[femrap]

16. I heard on CBS news

that one pelican was cleaned and released into the wild in Florida....maybe central Florida??? I don't believe a word they say.

Then Rachel Maddow was at Queen Bess Island which is just filled with the pelicans....this is where such great efforts were made to bring back the brown pelican from extinction. And they were...all covered with oil. No one there cleaning them.

I don't want to see these beautiful birds to suffer. I can't bear it.

Yes, slam these oil boyz into the gushing oil...cover them in it. Let it ooze into every damn orifice and pore. OK...:sarcasm:

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. News said they are taking them to another state and releasing them.

[Quantess]

19. Well, let's hope they are native to their new location,

otherwise they could be introducing an invasive species.