Well, at least your friend is feeding their cats an appropiate diet (since they are obligated carnivores). Wouldn’t it be even worse if they fed those cats a “vegan diet” that is potentially life threatening because of their own dietary choices?
With that said though, make sure your friend keeps them kitties indoors! Cats are terrible for small vertebrate populations and an outdoor cat can kill up to 186 reptiles, birds and mammals a year.
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Some Canadas assist family members who are injured, some don’t. Sounds like either these parents were new to parenting and didn’t understand that something was wrong. Next time grab the gosling and get him to your nearest wildlife rehabber. If the parents didn’t care that much you should have been able to get him/her away from them easily. Don’t feel bad you didn’t assist. Most humans don’t know know what to do in situations like this.
In biology class in school, we learn the term “natural selection” as something of an abstraction. But if you observe nature long enough, you see the concrete meaning of natural selection. A wasp imago ecloses with her wings slightly too short. Insects to not grow any more after emerging as imagos, If her wings are too short to fly, they always will be. She does not know that; she tries to fly, and falls to the ground. Still not understanding, she keeps trying, and keeps doing faceplants. It never crosses her mind to give up. Eventually, the ants find her, and she is swarmed, pinned down, and dismembered. Nature has no Animals with Disabilities Act to provide reasonable accommodations. This is what natural selection looks like.
And yet suppose that had not happened? Suppose she had emerged with perfect wings? Then you might see her sting a butterfly that was drinking nectar, and carry it away paralyzed. The butterfly will lie there in the wasp’s nest, paralyzed and helpless, as the wasp larva eats it alive from the inside.
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