The Birdmen of Illinois
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Michele who received the following letter via CorrLinks, from a friend serving time in a federal prison in Marion, Illinois
July 2012


No matter who we are or where we may find ourselves we can help and save an animal's life, if we choose to. You don't have to be in ideal circumstances or be the perfect politically correct vegan to do so. All you need to be is caring, compassionate and willing to take action with your brain and body.


On July 13th of 2012 a baby bird fell down the fence posting of CMU Marion's recreation cage. The post in which she fell was approximately 20 feet tall and hollow at the top, just like the posts on a standard yard fence. For baby birds, of which there are a surprising number here, it can be a treacherous world in which to learn to fly. They sometimes get caught in the razor wire which is everywhere, or as in this unfortunate young one's experience trying to perch, but slipping and falling 20 feet to the bottom of a stanchion. The second part to this unfortunate scenario was that the bottom of the fence post ended on a concrete curb, so try as we did to help her the rest of the way to freedom, the way out was impossible to maneuver.

So there was this baby bird with a quarter inch of clearance between a pipe and a curb, crying out for help to her family who stood vigil 20 feet up at the post's opening and on the ground crying out to us, the unfortunate victims of America's bogus war on terrorism.

Her little beak would poke out and when you laid on the ground you could see her little head, beak and the yellow corners of her mouth. For five days she was stuck. Her plight in the post spread quickly through the Muslim prison community and was a cause of distress to us all. We all took turns hand feeding her pieces of bread and spoon feeding her water.

One day five of her predicament, a plan was devised. A piece of yarn was slowly maneuvered up the post. It had a small rock attached to the other end so that it would fall down the pipe's length, but not heavy enough to injure the baby bird. Once this was accomplished, the yarn was pulled out of the bottom of the tube. Then a pre-made crocheted basket. that looked like a miniature basket you might see on a hot air balloon, was tied to the string. One of the political prisoners here in the CMU began pulling the string. As he did, it folded into the bottom of the pipe easily enveloping the baby bird and ascending up the pipe on what was essentially a pint-sized elevator made out of yarn, just for her.

As we watched from the ground, she got to the top and clumsily but promptly flew out of the fence post. She came to rest on the ground in the cage with us in the recreation yard!

 Her family began chirping frantically and happily and also came down to see that she was alright, while the five human captives were shouting Allahu Akbar (God is the Greatest) and literally jumping up and down with joy, myself included! Miraculously she was fine, not even a scratch. Soon all the brothers were out in the recreation yard to come see the bird freed. We fed her bread and watched her family take over from there.

I was asked "Is she alright?" and "You gotta tell everyone about this"! I responded "She is going to be just fine and of course I will be proud to report this!"

On a personal note it reminded me that no matter who we are or where we may find ourselves we can help and save an animal's life, if we choose to. You don't have to be in ideal circumstances or be the perfect politically correct vegan to do so. All you need to be is caring, compassionate and willing to take action with your brain and body.

Animal  Liberation, Whatever It May Take!
Abdul

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