Death of a Pelican

Andrew was the first to notice it tumbling in the surf and assumed it dead. But when it reached shore, the pelican clumsily righted itself. One of its wings flopped feebly at its side, broken and bent completely backwards. Without intervention, this poor bird faced a tortuous slow death. 

Andrew tried to approach it but the pelican still had enough vigour to waddle back into the water and paddle away. It bobbed in the current, floating south towards the middle of our beach where other campers noticed its plight. For an hour, the pelican stood on a large rock as we all debated what to do. A couple of spear fishermen strode past with their day’s catch; I suggested they shoot the bird. They didn’t seem to like this idea. 

Finally another young camper tried to stealthily approach the pelican but was interrupted by several of the dogs on the beach who thought now they’d get into the act. Barking, they ran at the bird. One, named Tecate, almost reached it before it startled and awkwardly flapped back into the ocean. Ironically, even if Tecate managed to get to the bird, the dog was far too gentle to know how to kill anything. If only there was a savage pit bull on the beach...

It bobbed back towards our camp and everyone lost interest, resigning the pelican to its fate. It stood on the sand at the far north end of the beach out of everyone’s view. Andrew looked at it and quietly said to himself, working out the plan, “if I can approach it from behind and drive it onto the rocks...”. Suddenly he picked up a big piece of wood and scrambled down the rocks. I quickly grabbed Coco’s ball in an effort to distract her and prevent her from interfering. 

By the time I’d caught Coco and approached the beach, the deed was done. Andrew managed to get close enough that the pelican had nowhere to flee. Trapped, it snapped at him. Andrew brought it down with one hard crack to the head. 

I gave Andrew a big hug as he blinked tears away. “It had such nice big brown eyes”, he said. Andrew loves animals and hates to even kill a spider, but he knew he had to spare the pelican days of hunger and pain. This is one of the many reasons I love him. 

As word spread through the camp that Andrew had killed the pelican, many came by with beers and pats on the back. “Sucks but had to be done”, “Good job”, etc. We built a fire and had tequila shots with friends. RIP pelican.