Should the owner of a sporting goods store advertise the array of different piercing tools in that store? Would that help to bring more customers into the store? Probably not, but in southern California, it might bring members of the law enforcement community into the store. They would no doubt be looking for the careless archer who shot an arrow into the bill of a pelican. Both environmentalists and animal lovers would like to see that arrow shooter captured. They would view his capture as a warning to all those who have participated in an activity that calls for the shooting of similar piercing tools.
Even young children know that Robin Hood knew well how to shoot an arrow. Tales about Robin Hood include no mention of piercing tools. Such stories might mention the jewelry worn by women in the King’s court. Still, those stories do not say that Robin Hood had become the skilled user of a sharp and pointed jewelry supply.
Parents living in southern California might expect questions from their children about Robin Hood’s familiarity with piercing tools. During the last half of January, 2008, volunteers at San Pedro’s International Bird Rescue Center were trying to capture a white pelican. That pelican had an arrow stuck in its bill.
Maybe the arrow shooter dreamed about being a modern-day Robin Hood. After all, the authorities now offer a $2,500 reward to anyone who can help them to apprehend the needlessly careless archer. That award seems to hark back to the rewards once issued by the King, rewards for the capture of Robin Hood.
Volunteers who work at the Rescue Center are not surprised to see pictures that prove what they have known for some time. Arrows make good piercing tools. The volunteers have seen other birds shot by an arrow. They have also seen birds hit by bullets or steel balls from a BB gun.
Center volunteers also know about other piercing tools. Those tools have harmed a number of the dozens of birds that fly into and out of Lake Balboa, a lake in California’s San Fernando Valley. The volunteers have seen that a fisherman’s hook can become a piercing tool.
Thoughtless fishermen sometimes leave such a hook in a catch, and then feed that catch to an innocent bird. One fisherman who used a cherry branch as a rod once did just that. Later, one of the Center’s volunteers saw a cormorant that had become tangled in a fishing line. The branch-like rod dragged on the ground, as the bird struggled to free itself.
If anyone from the press saw a similar sight, that photographer did not snap a picture. An arrow in the bill of a pelican appears to be deserving of a picture. The state of California takes pride in its pelicans.
That picture of the injured pelican has now been posted on the Internet. Children are sure to see that picture. Children might begin to wonder whether any of Robin Hood’s arrows somehow managed to stray from their mark. Did one of those arrows pierce a bird in the forest?
How should a parent answer such a question? Perhaps a parent should emphasize the fact that no one could question. The forest where Robin Hood lived did not have any pelicans. Robin Hood never shot an arrow in the bill of a pelican.