a plea

This is not going to be an entertaining post. What follows is disturbing (to me, at least), not funny in the slightest and involves an innocent animal that has been hurt. If this sort of thing bothers you, stop reading. However, I'd encourage everyone who is able to please pay attention to this post -- it will make you think twice about how dispose of your trash and interact with wildlife.

This past Thursday I was in lovely Prospect Park on a stroll. It's always very nice to just go and sit there and collect one's thoughts. That day, however, I was with a friend and feeling more active than usual, and so we were walking around the various trails in 'Urban Explorer' mode.

The sound of a saxophone being played caught our attention as we walked down one of the busier trails. It had a mellow and sweet sound, and naturally my friend and I went to go investigate. We picked our way through the grass, avoiding litter dropped by fellow park visitors. Glass, bits of plastic, pull tabs from cola cans and gum wrappers were underfoot as we walked closer to the reedy sound of the sax. My friend had opted to go barefoot and I remember begging him to put his shoes back on. "God only knows what you might step on out here," I remember telling him.

We were almost to the saxophonist when my friend noted a beautiful white squirrel sitting under a clump of trees. He wasn't moving, and his wide eyes were looking us right in our faces. Captivated, we stepped closer and were surprised when he had made no sign of moving away from us. Thinking he was tame, we got even closer, until we noticed the squirrel couldn't move -- a front paw was stuck between a metal wire than someone had wrapped around a discarded piece of fencing they had propped up against one of the trees. The squirrel began gnawing frantically at the fence post and wire to try and loosen itself, to no avail.

My heart sank into my stomach. I felt sick. This poor creature was obviously suffering -- eyes wide in terror, limb being cut off by wire, claws stretched out in hideous pain -- and the rigid lines of his body revealed just how horrible this animal was feeling. My friend tried to loosen the wire from around the squirrel's paw, but the poor creature only began squawking out in pain. It was loud and eerie coming from a squirrel, the sort of sound you never want to hear and can never forget.

We had almost freed the squirrel when suddenly, in a last ditch effort, the animal pulled away from the wire so hard that his entire talon and the flesh connected to it came off. He scampered up the nearest tree leaving a piece of his body behind him.

At this point, of course, I was in tears. My friend and I apologized profusely to the squirrel, said a little prayer that he would be okay, and then began picking up all the litter surrounding the trees. As we slammed the trash into nearby garbage bins, I began to feel disgusted with people. What sort of jerk would leave WIRE out where an animal could catch himself on it? The same type of person who threw glass bottles on the grass fields where toddlers play, I concluded. Only a human would be so thoughtless as to pollute the environment in such a destructive, needless way.

The point of my posting is this -- if you're out, please don't litter. Clean up after yourself. There's no excuse to do otherwise. Innocent animals are hurt, and the people who have to help these creatures are often left traumatized by witnessing the pain of a fellow creature.