An Unpleasant Pheasant

Winter is open season for pheasant hunting. Families and friends come together to bond over the hunt. Dogs are released into the underbrush to scare up a few of the birds into the gunsights of the shooters.

But there are occasions when the prey can turn the tables on their predators, to spit their last breath at them in defiance. 

Our story regards a man, who was trying to impress his wife with his shooting. She was sat behind him, watching him as he shot at panicked pheasants. Her husband managed to hit one low flying pheasant as it was headed towards them. 

Although the pheasant had died, the laws of momentum allowed it to maintain it's trajectory. Had it been alive, it may have been able to manoeuvre out the obstacle that intersected with the aforementioned trajectory. Thus, it hit that object square on at full speed. That object was the man's wife with enough force to burst her spleen.

Enjoy your Christmas meal everybody !

Wilkinson M.C., Klein G., Cornell M. & Rainsbury R.M. (1987). The pheasant's revenge: an unusual zoonotic injury., BMJ, 295 (6613) 1659-1659. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.295.6613.1659