The soccer player who kicked an owl to death
A mascot bird interrupts a match in Colombia, and Panama's Luís Moreno reacts by kicking it in the face. Days later, the owl dies
The video: During a Colombian championship soccer match last weekend, Panamanian player Luís Moreno outraged fans and players alike when he brutally kicked the opposing team's mascot, an owl, that had mistakenly flown onto the field. (See video below.) Players immediately confronted Moreno, and fans soon began chanting "murderer!" The owl was taken to a veterinary clinic, and on Tuesday morning, it was reported to have died of a respiratory arrest. Colombian authorities were already planning to press charges against Moreno; according to a local radio station, he could face jail time.
The reaction: "I apologize to the fans, it wasn't my intention," said Moreno after the game, as quoted by Colombia Reports. "I did it to see if the owl could fly." That explanation might just be the "the worst apology" imaginable, says Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid. Indeed, Moreno "should be severely punished for this painful, horrible act of intolerance," said Ramon Jesurum, president of the league, as quoted by Yahoo! Watch the regrettable kick:
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
‘Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America’ and ‘Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary’feature The culture divide in small-town Ohio and how the internet usurped dictionaries
-
How will tariffs affect shopping this holiday season?the explainer Prices may not be so holly jolly this year
-
Newsom slams Trump’s climate denial at COP30speed read Trump, who has called climate change a ‘hoax,’ declined to send any officials to this week’s summit