Oil spills are tragic events, not only is the damage to the environment and nature catostrophic, but it’s also on-going, meaning people have to deal with the issues that arise from the spill for months, even years after the original disaster. By far one of the most harrowing and iconic images of such events is that of an oil soaked bird. But here’s the thing, apparently, it’s better and more humane to kill these birds than it is to try to clean the oil off. Since two pictures of oil covered birds is too depressing, here is a picture of a crow instead.
For example, after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill a German expert recommended simply killing the birds to avoid having them eventually starve to death anyway. When questioned about how unecessarily cruel and German this sounded, Silvia Gaus pointed out that birds involved in oil spills usually have a 1% survival rate and that cleaning off the oil was effectively dooming the bird to dying a more painful death. Meaning yes, even when we try to help animals, we’re not really helping. Man, we suck.