Kicking The Owl

Unfortunate and accidental acts of violence against winged animals in sport have long been documented and guilt-inducingly hilarious. From Lucas Neill killing a magpie during an international friendly with a fortuitously accurate pass to Goran Ivanisevic's unintentional bludgeoning of a low-flying fluff machine. Despite laughs from the crowd, our Croatian buddy doesn't find it as funny as it is in slow motion.

With the Colombian Apertura underway, Atlético Junior were playing (and beating) Pereira when a passage of play near the corner flag resulted in a very unaware owl, who happened to be sitting on the pitch, being upended by the ball. The owl is upside down and confused, but visibly alright until Panamanian footballer Luis Moreno quite senselessly and horrifyingly jogs over and hoofs the down-on-his-luck avian with his right peg. Though the owl's current condition is unknown* (presumably not good) the video is honestly shocking and those of sensitive disposition are advised to take the previous paragraph as the full narrative of what happened and not watch.

The unwell-wishing has started and already there are those who hope for an unlikely scenario where Sr. Moreno may yet end up covered in mixed seeds, in a room with thousands of hungry parrots. Regardless of the PETA-bollocking that's sure to follow (when they're not completely wasting their charitably-donated resources), I personally wait with crossed fingers for the term Kicking The Owl to enter the lexicon as the moment in someone's life when they stupidly, unforgivably and unreservedly f*cked up.

*The owl died 2 days after this post was initially submitted, despite the best efforts of local vets. Luis Moreno received a lengthy ban and was required to pay upwards of $100,000 to animal charities.