Myna birds and the law of karma

I’ve always been attracted to the Buddhist principle of not harming animals whether for food or otherwise and I find some logic in the idea of karma.  I am not a Buddhist and have read lightly on the matter.  I simply like the idea of not intentionally hurting living creatures and I certainly don't want to acquire any bad karma.  

     I have no problem exterminating pests like cane toads and cockroaches providing it’s painless and or quick.  Suffering to a human where the pesky creature survives is not desirable so delivering a humane death, I reckon, is necessary for one’s sanity.  

     I collect toads by a loving hand and slip them into the freezer where they fall into a permanent sleep.  Cockroaches, I squash with a heel and mosquitoes, a palm, always delivering the force with awareness.  Had I found under the sink a carbon dioxide canister (Sutchy’s suggestion), I’d have emptied it into the mynas' home and waited for them to fall asleep for the last time.  But I’ve never known anyone to keep carbon dioxide at home.  So on Friday, a clear and sunny morn, when I went off to the Salvos, the myna chicks were alive and screaming and I prayed they would expire in the cavernous heat from the tin roof.

     Four hours later on my return, when the sun was overhead and burning my skin as I alighted the car, I was accosted by screeching from both babies and parents, the latter from the fence, clothesline, neighbour’s roof, bottlebrush tree, as they flew, paused, and they continued to fly frantically.

     I jumped up on the couch and started bashing at the ceiling, determined to make a hole so I could give the chicks some food and water and allow the parents access.  The damn things would have to grow wings and fly away.

     “Mum,” said Sutchy.  “They’re pests.  Leave them.”

     I screamed at him something about not letting defenceless creatures suffer and to “get me a hammer or something.”

     Sutchy is a big animal lover and I wasn’t surprised when he pushed me out of the way.

     “Let me do it.”  I offered to find him a hammer.  “I’ve got one.”

     Within seconds, he’d smashed a black hole in the white sheeting and blades of dry grass drifted onto the couch.

     “There,” he said and jumped down.

My new veranda ceiling!

     I broke some homemade bread onto a plate and covered it with water.  When I inserted the plate into the cavity, I felt a soft, almost feathery sensation on my arms then my face and neck.

     Bird mites. They are minute, more like invisible and live where pestilent birds nest.  While they can’t live on humans they love to feast on them and I was about to become the blood-meal.

     The parents were reunited with their young and I settled at my computer.  An object dropped from the hole to the couch.  It was one of the babies, fairly developed and able to hop and flap a little.  It was terrified and it eventually made its way under the couch where I slid another plate of water-soaked bread.  A few hours later it was gone.  I was hoping the other chicks would make it out the same way. 

Myna baby

I placed the second myna baby in the garden, out of the wind.  Immediately it cried for its parents who went to it.

      That night I was unable to sleep.  From ten, I tossed and rolled and constantly scratched at the crawling under my skin.  It was bird mites injecting their saliva as they fed on my flesh.

     At three a.m., unable to bear it any longer, I had an idea. 

     Our favourite hen, Billie had recently been paralysed by scaly mites that burrow in the leg scales of poultry. The most effective treatment is Vicks Vaporub which suffocates the mite.  I had used three tubs on Billie (who made a full recovery) and was out.  But the next best thing was Pestene, a powder treatment against lice, mites and fleas in poultry, dogs, cats, horses, calves and goats which I had dusted in Billie’s feathers and in her coop.

     I scattered Pestene on my bottom sheet and pillows then re-read the directions more closely, particularly the Restraints, Not to be used:

·              *on kittens or puppies under three months,

·              *lactating does where milk is intended for human consumption, and

·              *for any purpose, or in any manner contrary to this label.

     That was all I needed to know.

     I dusted my pyjamas and rubbed it into my hair and skin.  Then I slept soundly till half-past nine.  

     No one else had been affected and I’ll buy some Vicks Vaporub for tonight.  The parents have been bringing food and I’ll pray to Buddha to hurry along the mynas’ departure (and forgive me for exterminating the mites - there are limits to my suffering).  I‘ll scratch and bear my itchy insomnia for a few more nights, if necessary with clear sinuses and powdery linen and without bad karma.  The chicks will surely be gone by then and I’ll board up the hole.