Woman Left Bleeding After She’s Pecked In Eye While Trying To Share Her Toast With Bird

An Australian woman who was trying to do a good deed by sharing her toast with a bird at a local wildlife reserve was left bleeding after the animal pecked her in the eye. Debbie Jones was enjoying breakfast at a cafe in Burleigh Heads in Queensland when she was attacked by the magpie in a single strike that left her rushing to a local eye doctor for treatment, 9 News reports. I bet she’ll think twice about convening with nature again in the future!

  1. There was a huge amount of blood from the attack. As Jones told the news outlet, the bird “attacked [her] in the eye” despite her generosity with the toast. “I started to run down the road; there was all blood pouring down my face.”
  2. Thankfully, her injuries weren’t serious. Turns out the incident looked worse than it was and there’s been no serious damage down to Jones’ eye. However, doctors told her that had it pecked her even a few millimeters away, the story could have been much worse.
  3. Now she has to walk around with an eye patch. Recalling the treatment she received, Jones said, “They swished my eye out with saline stuff and an gave me an injection and now I have an eye patch, I’m walking around at work like a pirate.” She joked that she planned to enter the lottery as she believes the attack was potentially a good omen.
  4. Experts have warned people not to feed magpies, especially during swooping season. As Beth Hall of Birdlife Australia’s Gold Coast branch said, “One of the things they do say is that you should wear sunglasses if they’re in an attacking or swooping mood and do not look them in the eye.” Be careful out there!
Jennifer Still is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience. The managing editor of Bolde, she has bylines in Vanity Fair, Business Insider, The New York Times, Glamour, Bon Appetit, and many more. You can follow her on Twitter @jenniferlstill
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