Wesley: The Story of a Remarkable Owl
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
Reading about animals, both in the fiction and non fiction sense has always brought with it hours of pleasure. On the odd occasion you get a book, that you hope would fulfill all the boxes of the previous good animal book you read ("Otter in the Airing Cupboard" by Roy Harper) and then you find yourself incredibly let down and vulnerable, when reading anything less than that.
I will try not to politicise my own welfare and animal beliefs on here or towards any friends or family members, I fear sadly O'Brien has (page 85 for instance). Having a forceful opinion on one thing, but you need evidence to back it up, to prevent empty statements.
SPOILERS
Wesley is as barn owl, that comes into O'Brien's care whilst she works for a biological dept come laboratory. Her work colleagues, suggest that O'Brien would be a good candidate in taking home and observing barn owl behaviour. Naturally O'Brien adheres to this task in her late teens / early 20s, in the mid 1980s. Wesley (the barn owl) has nerve damage to his wings and therefore "would not survive in the wild alone." He is raised at O'Brien's house, we won't go into the domestication vs social imprinting here, to avoid contradicting my previous statement.
There are times when Wesley is angry, upset, or just sexually maturing, whereby he exhibits maladaptive behaviours (one being masturbating on his arm, who then later takes a swab of his ejaculant to view owl sperm and semen). Yes I am even cringing and sitting awkwardly whilst typing this. At times O'Brien wears her wounds like military badges of combat.
Another incident occurs when O'Brien's finches are eaten alive by Wesley and anecdotes of killing mice, which would make a meat eater even feel uncomfortable.
Furthermore there are more anecdotes of biologists growing worms under their skin and going to the Amazon Basin only to come back morphed into an Amazonian.
I wanted to like this book. Maybe it was just a little too liberal or Americanised for me. I am sure O'Brien has a heart of gold and loves to nurture animals as a zoologist and as their carer. To me this book just fell flat ...
I will try not to politicise my own welfare and animal beliefs on here or towards any friends or family members, I fear sadly O'Brien has (page 85 for instance). Having a forceful opinion on one thing, but you need evidence to back it up, to prevent empty statements.
SPOILERS
Wesley is as barn owl, that comes into O'Brien's care whilst she works for a biological dept come laboratory. Her work colleagues, suggest that O'Brien would be a good candidate in taking home and observing barn owl behaviour. Naturally O'Brien adheres to this task in her late teens / early 20s, in the mid 1980s. Wesley (the barn owl) has nerve damage to his wings and therefore "would not survive in the wild alone." He is raised at O'Brien's house, we won't go into the domestication vs social imprinting here, to avoid contradicting my previous statement.
There are times when Wesley is angry, upset, or just sexually maturing, whereby he exhibits maladaptive behaviours (one being masturbating on his arm, who then later takes a swab of his ejaculant to view owl sperm and semen). Yes I am even cringing and sitting awkwardly whilst typing this. At times O'Brien wears her wounds like military badges of combat.
Another incident occurs when O'Brien's finches are eaten alive by Wesley and anecdotes of killing mice, which would make a meat eater even feel uncomfortable.
Furthermore there are more anecdotes of biologists growing worms under their skin and going to the Amazon Basin only to come back morphed into an Amazonian.
I wanted to like this book. Maybe it was just a little too liberal or Americanised for me. I am sure O'Brien has a heart of gold and loves to nurture animals as a zoologist and as their carer. To me this book just fell flat ...
Journal Entry 3 by Zoooz at Telephone Box ☎️ in Berkeley, Gloucestershire United Kingdom on Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Released 9 yrs ago (12/24/2014 UTC) at Telephone Box ☎️ in Berkeley, Gloucestershire United Kingdom
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