Sunday, March 27, 2011

What Happens in New Orleans, Stays in New Orleans

During my internship in Hell (aka, Baton Rouge, a city with all the charm of a suburb, the traffic of Los Angeles, the heat and humidity of the American South, and the safety of the slums of Brazil), the exotics department did field trips with the senior students on the rotation to the zoo in New Orleans. This was the year after Katrina and Rita passed through, so at that time New Orleans made Baton Rouge look like a great place to live.

The vet school was associated with the zoo, so there was some justification for this trip, but nobody in their right mind would ever let an untrained person do anything to a zoo animal, so essentially it was a long drive there, a few hours of standing around watching someone else do something, a few more hours of wandering around the zoo, and then a long drive back in the afternoon thunderstorm. Driving a passenger van along a narrow causeway over Lake Pontchartrain in not-quite gale force winds and blinding rain is something that I'd never like to repeat in my life.

Before I relate the following, I'd just like to point out that I was not involved in this incident in any way, shape, or form.

One of my fellow small animal interns was rotating through the exotics department when it was time to take the students to New Orleans. The day passed quietly enough, and they were heading back when they decided to stop for fast food. They parked the car, went inside, got their food, and were piling back into the van for the ride back when someone noticed an injured pigeon wandering on the pavement of the drive-through lane.

This being a van full of conscientious vet students (plus one fairly disinterested intern), they felt the need to save the pigeon, but before anyone could grab it, another car drove over it and left it seriously injured but alive.

At this point they all knew it needed to be euthanized, but the van had no supplies of any kind. So, with two students guiding her, my fellow intern, in a large white van with with vet school logo displayed prominently on all sides, carefully backed over the pigeon and squished it dead.

I can't say it was necessarily the wrong thing to do, but I probably wouldn't have come back and told everyone about it afterward had it been me...

9 comments:

Eric said...

Some times people just aren't thinking. If they had squished it with a pair of high heels they could have sold the video on the internet.

jeff said...

Where the hell would that group get high heels?

Bob Loblaw said...

Well, the next time someone brings in a chitzu they could sedate the owner instead of the dog and take her shoes.

JJ said...

I used to wear high heels on receiving days all the time. 3 inch heels. But I do love my shoes, so they wouldn't have been volunteered for the job.

Cervical dislocation might have been a better option. Discretely. Perhaps in the molestervan. Wouldn't that have been more apropos?

jeff said...

'molestervan' -- rvan always makes an appearance.

jj, is that some kinda vet term or is it really just 'molester van'?

Theresa B (of Nebulopathy) said...

JJ, I was going to point out that your shoe collection is quite extensive, but I wasn't logged in at the time.

Jeff, I believe molestervan has indeed been entered into Webster's at this point. Good catch on the inclusion of Rvan, though.

JJ said...

No, Jeff, molester van is just that.

Karen said...

what happened to thursday posts?

Theresa B (of Nebulopathy) said...

Last week I was working and this week I was just too lazy. Don't worry, they'll be back.