Speaking of freakish attacks: This morning at Lacey, New Jersey's Popcorn Park Zoo, zookeepers were horrified to find eight exotic large birds--four Peking ducks, two emus, and two rheas (like ostriches, only smaller and with three toes instead of two)--beaten to death with a variety of blunt objects, including a fiberglass shovel, a rake, and a PVC pipe, which authorities found broken and scattered over the zoo grounds. Police believe the attack occurred sometime late Sunday or early Monday, but have yet to name any suspects. "Eight birds had to be killed over somebody's aggression, sickness, stupidity?" said zookeeper Bill Waters to the Associated Press. "The person that did this should be caught and locked up for the rest of their lives."
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I've become pretty much inured to stories of violence against humans, where in all but the most horrible of cases, I can just shake my head and then move on. But this. This kind of thing really gets me. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I have this idea that humans are generally shitty to each other and somehow deserve to be wiped off the planet. But birds? What did they ever do to us? This kind of thing is sick. I was reading the paper on the bus this afternoon, and was literally holding back tears.
...well, that's partly hormonal, but that's beside the point.
Sick, sick shit.
