During a soccer game in Colombia, a player kicked an owl that was on the field. The bird, which looked like a Barn Owl, was the mascot for the opposing team and died from its injuries. Video and desultory apology here.
Mike is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but he's also a traveler who fully expects to see every bird in the world. Besides founding 10,000 Birds in 2003, Mike has also created a number of other entertaining but now extirpated nature blog resources, particularly the Nature Blog Network and I and the Bird.
Well, the guy that kicked is what he is…no point in discussing him. But the disregard for animals that leads to teams using a live owl as a mascot…and having so little control over it that it got onto the field during play? Sick.
Agree with Kirky’s comment.
“I wanted to see if it would fly!” So you kicked it like 3 yards? The owl was lying there injured, of course it’s not going to fly, especially judging by how hard you kicked it. Next time, leave it alone and let someone else come and take it off the field.
It’s too bad that the owl had to die because the one team couldn’t keep it under control, but I feel even worse that this ass will more than likely not even receive a fine for this animal cruelty because Columbia has no laws on the subject.