Stopped by a pigeon

This one ends sadly and I still feel upset about it.

Driving home at 9pm, 3 minutes from arriving at the house and in the centre of the road is a beautiful grey pigeon.

What is a pigeon doing out at this time?

It wont fly away after beeping so I get out the car to try encourage it to fly as I move towards it. It starts running away but it wont fly. I inspect it but cant see a clear injury. So I encourage it off the road and we park up somewhere safer. We give it some time whilst disturbing it to see what it does but its clear he will not fly. So I got a jacket and threw it over him then picked it up. We brought it into the car and still couldn't see an injury. But it was clear something was wrong as normally you couldnt get to close to a pigeon around this area. We feed the pigeons and they're much more antisocial than the ones in cities.

So back we go, circling back from the area we came from to the vets. We sign him over to the vets and after assessment we ask whats going on. They said he has a punctured airsac, I wasnt familiar with that injury and what it means, they said it was serious. They kind of give a dont worry you leave indication. So we leave and I go research its options whilst in the carpark. I immediately regret leaving, I call up and say if theres anything we could pay for if there is surgery etc we'd like to discuss it.

They said the injury was incompatible with life and that the pigeon had been euthanised.

So we brought the pigeon to his death. I felt conflicted because that could have been a meal for a predator which would have stopped another animal from dying. But I am glad the pigeon didn't die through that horrible route. Sometimes you wonder if it was better to leave nature to its own devices. I do think the pigeon died a nicer death this way though and had an act of kindness during a time it was clearly distressed. The alternative would have been he was eaten by an animal which isnt always an immediate death, or he was hit by a car - also not necessarily causing death or he slowly suffered from his injury until death. None of them are a peaceful way to go. I'd chose sedation style death from those choices.

I wish it had of ended differently. The goal of taking him was for it to end better. It was a chance of life. I hope he forgives us and I hope he was one of the pigeons we've been feeding for years.

Though we couldn't save his life, we could fill his final moments with kindness.