For the second time this year*, I just witnessed an animal being abandon on a busy downtown street while driving a few blocks from my work. While slowly rolling through the high-traffic municipal court and post office area, the passenger of a small SUV in front of me tossed a white dove out their window. Watching in disbelief, my side view mirrors showed other cars nearly running over the confused animal as it staggered to the curb.

Unfortunately, from my angle, I didn't actually see the bird being dumped from the window. As I followed the SUV (going toward my destination), I saw the passenger's window rolled down and a young girl looking back toward the scene, removing all doubt as to what actually happened.

My blood immediately began to boil, since I regard animal cruelty as an unforgivable offense. Question was, two blocks and two minutes from my parking deck, what should I do about it. I got a glance at the driver; a man probably 35-40 who didn't look noticeably rough. Should I follow them to the next traffic light, hop out and ask why the hell he abandon a bird like that? Should I go more drastic, whipping my car in front of him, blocking his way before approaching him? Should I get his plates and call the police? Follow him? Lay on my horn? Or just let it go?

If that bird survived the cars and people long enough to reach night fall, it would probably be killed by the cold. Maybe the man was well meaning and convinced his daughter that the bird would fly away; in which case, why didn't he release the bird any of the large nearby parks? He would have been more humane to smash its head with a brick rather than sentencing it to a terrifying or slow death on a city street.


*The first incident was in the summer, nearly the same stretch of road, I saw someone toss a 2 month old puppy out the open door of a car and drive off. The puppy nearly got hit by three cars in its confusion, looking to each apathetic passer-by to find its owner. I should have stopped in the middle of the busy street, picked up the dog, and taken it with me; but that was so far beyond normal acceptable behavior that it didn't occur to me. I parked and went back to the scene as quickly as I could, but the dog was gone.