WASHINGTON—Following the Bird Supreme Court’s decisive 7-2 ruling to overturn the avian world’s longstanding anti-abortion law, millions of birds across the nation were granted reproductive rights Thursday, prompting thousands to forego parenthood by fatally pushing eggs from their nests.
“It is the finding of this court that stewardship over one’s body and nest shall be the province of the individual,” wrote Cheep Justice William Hootkins in his majority ruling, which empowers U.S. birds to terminate incubation at any point prior to the hatching of offspring. “The right to privacy and security in a bird’s affairs extend not only to the individual twigs comprising one’s nest, but to their offspring or elective lack thereof.”
The landmark ruling, avian law experts confirmed, ends the long-established ban on procedures that involve the removal or expulsion of an egg from a nest. Bird abortion is commonly facilitated by a variety of methods that can include rolling an egg over the side of a nest or thrusting a developing embryo from the roost with the aid of a small stick, feet, or beak.
In the hours since the decision, numerous bird-watchers and ornithologists witnessed sparrows, crows, hawks, and countless other feathered creatures overturning their nests and dropping the eggs for which they are no longer legally responsible. According to numerous reports, a significant amount of the nation’s ground is currently strewn with eggshell fragments, dried albumen, yolk splatter, and the remains of partially developed chick embryos.
Though opponents maintain that birdhood begins at egg laying, the monumental decision comes as welcome news by progressive birds nationwide. In a major demonstration, thousands of excited thrushes, swallows, and larks showed up at the National Mall to loudly chirp their support for the ruling.
“This is a major victory,” said a chestnut-tailed starling while preparing to dump the contents of her nest from the crook of a fir tree. “I have ambitions for my life, and managing a single-parent nest simply does not fit into that plan.”
“There is no place for a cabal of old, multicolored males to tell me what I can and cannot do with my life,” added the chestnut-tailed starling. “It’s not fair that I should be burdened with raising a chick I don’t want.”
The verdict marks the end of the controversial Crow v. Laid case in which an unmarried female raven in California sued for the right to safely destroy her unhatched chicks. Pro-egg advocates argued vehemently against legalization, saying the rights of a viable potential bird supersede parental quality-of-life issues.
Bird legislators passed laws in 2003 barring so-called partial-hatch abortions, in which a developing embryo is removed from the shell prior to termination, and restricted abortions to cases of rape or a human handling the eggs.
Despite the ruling, dissenters have expressed concerns that birds have taken a huge step backwards, claiming that an abortion is not a suitable method for flock planning.
“This is a barbaric practice, pure and simple,” said a western meadowlark native to North Dakota. “When I stare into the gaping throats of my sweet babies, I just think, how could I do anything but regurgitate chewed-up bugs and grubs into them? Anything else would be savage.”
At press time, lobbyists representing the interests of stoats and weasels applauded the legalization of egg dumping.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Jousting With Toothpicks - The Case For Challenging Corporate Journalism http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/alerts-2013/719-jousting-with-toothpicks-the-case-for-challenging-corporate-journalism.html.
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHiVly9fY_XKrhvKJDjuDgOL5daJw&url=http://www.theonion.com/articles/thousands-of-eggs-pushed-out-of-nests-after-birds,31951/
0 comments:
Post a Comment