‘I don’t understand’: Questions over plight of crow stuck in supermarket for 10 days
Perched on a neon light above the cosmetics aisle of a Coles just outside Brisbane’s northern outskirts is a wild-eyed crow.
According to a North Lakes Westfield shop assistant, it’s been in the shop for at least 10 days.
The frazzled bird looks like it’s spent every second of those 10 days awake.
It shuffles its feet and looks down whenever someone walks past. Marks of its excrement dirty the flecked white nylon tiles of the supermarket below it.
Coles Radio plays The Final Countdown.
For the most part, people just walk past. No one seems to care for the crow.
No one except Melissa Webb, who has been checking in on the animal on her lunch break every day since last Wednesday.
“I don’t really understand why there’s thousands of people walking in and out of the North Lakes Westfield ignoring it,” she said.
“My idea was to get enough community attention on the issue and see if I could get somebody who could do something – contact management – and get them to do it the right way.”
Webb has been posting about the plight of the crow online, and animal rights groups have become involved, but still the bird remains.
Outside the shop, Warren Parker said he saw posts about the bird online.
“It would make a good spy camera – stop people thieving,” he joked.
But Parker said he felt for the bird, which he said would move every time someone tried to catch it.
“They’re intelligent, just like a magpie,” he said.
Parker isn’t the only one who’s seen posts sparked by Webb’s advocacy. Hundreds of people reacted on Facebook to speculation that Coles was bringing in a company to euthanise the bird.
A Coles spokesperson refuted that rumour, and said they were doing their best to serve both the bird and their customers.
”We share the community’s concern for the bird, and we want to make sure it’s treated with care,” they said.
“We’re working with a professional third-party provider to safely capture and remove the bird from our store, while ensuring our responsibilities around food safety and animal welfare.”
The RSPCA has been involved, with officers attending the store this morning.
“RSPCA Queensland has spoken with store management, who have informed us that efforts are being made to capture the crow humanely,” a spokesperson said.
They said the organisation received many calls about birds stuck in shopping centres, and more thought needed to be put into escape routes for avian adventurers who make their way into them.
“When these facilities are established, consideration should be given to providing a safe means for birds and other wildlife to exit on their own, such as high-level windows or other openings,” they said.
“Including these features during the design phase could help prevent wildlife from becoming trapped.”
Sadly, it’s a little late for the most famous crow in North Lakes.
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