On Sunday, as the Junior Barranquilla soccer team was defeating Pereira 2-1 in the fourth game of the Liga Postobon, an owl landed on the field after being struck by a ball, and Pereira’s Luis Moreno kicked the bird. Even worse, the owl is Junior Barranquilla’s official mascot and good luck charm, so I’m sure the team went apesh*t and taught him a lesson, right? Nope. They gave him a stern, “What the heck, man?” Probably because Moreno is a pretty big dude.
As fans shouted in protest and chanted “Murderer” at Moreno, the bird was simply cleared from the field and taken to a zoo for treatment. Luckily, the bird is fine and I don’t have to worry about getting my barbed wire baseball bat through Customs for a little trip down to Bogota for avian justice. So what then of Moreno’s despicable act? How does the man with no corazon feel?
“I apologize to the fans, it wasn’t my intention, I did it to see if the owl could fly,” said Moreno after the game, which he left amid a heavy police guard. The Pereira player explained he did it to rid the field of the bird as quickly as possible. (Via Columbia Reports)
The problem with that excuse is that people have eyes, and they use those eyes to watch video footage of people kicking injured owls. If Moreno felt any concern, he sure has a strange way of showing it. Needless to say, animal groups are furious over Moreno’s treatment of the mascot, and they’re calling on the Colombian government to take serious action. And action will be swiftly dealt, friends. Mainly because the country has no animal abuse laws, so Moreno won’t be punished. Viva justicia!
Video after the jump…
This is nothing more than your garden-variety “High school students somewhere in America sell raunchy shirts of horses fingercuffing cheerleader from rival school while exchanging an equine high-five of sorts.” But everyone else is posting it, so I feel compelled to weigh in on it, even though its actual relevance to sports is significantly small.
