Death of a songbird
The life expectancy of a zebra finch is highly variable on account of genetic and environmental factors. The zebra finch may reach up to 5 years in its natural environment, averaging 5 to 10 years in captivity with a maximum of 12 to 15 years. The greatest threats to the survival of the species are cats and loss of natural food. – From Wikipedia.
Someone might have to go into the Wikipedia entry and add Clarkson University students to the list of greatest threats to these colorful songbirds. Or add that life expectancy apparently drops to a couple of weeks if you are one of these finches whose environmental factors include living at the Potsdam campus.
Four Clarkson students were recently accused of torturing and killing a pet bird. So far, the only charges lodged are for stealing the bird from another student. But police are investigating whether the students can be charged with animal cruelty.
All of the students will have their days in court. But if you read the statement that one of the accused students gave to police, it is pretty clear that someone tortured that bird. And that bird ended up dead. Sounds like animal cruelty to me. http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20090429/NEWS09/904299957/-1/BREAKINGNEWS
A bird. An ounce or two of creature whose only mission in life was to sing and look pretty ... versus allegedly grown men. Not exactly a fair fight.
I have no idea if any of the men are more culpable than the others. I have no idea about a lot of things, including what they might have been thinking when they did the things they allegedly did. These kids are college students at a private school. To be admitted they had to show some signs of intelligence and character. Did they all lie on their applications?
Killing a songbird the way they allegedly did takes neither intelligence nor character. It just takes a streak of mean that I simply cannot fathom. This wasn't college hijinks. This was sick.
You can’t expect the admissions officers at Clarkson to screen for pet killers before allowing a student into the school, but it would seem reasonable that they kick out any kids found guilty of such behavior. Let these alleged men explain to their parents how they derailed their educations by torturing a bird to death.
That punishment would be the kind of mean I can understand. And I know a little zebra finch who would agree ... if his life expectancy hadn’t been cut short by 12 or 13 years.
