Bald eagle poisonings bewilder investigators | The Oregonian

[Ediacara]

Bald eagle poisonings bewilder investigators
A judge's ruling keeps federal agencies from cooperating to find who is killing the birds with tainted sheep meat

Monday, May 10, 2004
MARK LARABEE

For more than a decade, someone has been poisoning bald eagles in the mid-Willamette Valley.

Since 1991, 18 bald eagles -- including three this year -- have been found dead in a 25-mile radius of Linn, Benton and Lane county farmland. Fifteen had the same poison and sheep meat in their bellies.

"It's a fact that somebody is putting out dead sheep and putting this pesticide on them to kill bald eagles," said Chris Brong, who heads the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's law enforcement office in Wilsonville. "I firmly believe it's a sheep rancher."

Despite that assertion, wildlife agents have no idea who's doing it. They hypothesize that it's someone upset with losing lambs.

More at the Oregonian

[Coventina]

1. OH! THAT IS JUST IT!!!!!!!!

I can't take anymore. I just can't.
Human beings don't deserve this planet.

[proud patriot]

2. this is sick

:grr: Who would do something so awful ?

[NewYorkerfromMass]

3. Developers would do it.

Bald eagle nesting sites are not to be moved and cannot be built near to within 600' or so.
They are an endagered species and heavily protected, and all nests are located and mapped.
Might be some real estate baron with a hate-on.

[blindpig]

4. I think you nailed it

Nothing may stand between a man and his potential profits. And that's why I hate libertarianism.

[leftchick]

10. Absolutely!...

I saw it happen in Florida too! Dispicable ... :grr:

[tom_paine]

7. A Bushevik.

End of story.

[Bandit]

5. Probably someone who has wrapped themselves in the Flag and very Pro-Bush*

I guess they don't know the Bald Eagle is the Natioal Bird. Our symbol of our nation.

[shadu]

6. I would bet you are right

The bastard doing this is a Bush lover.
This is an act of a republican.

[tom_paine]

8. Guaranteed.

[Lisa]

9. I had one of those creatures die in my arms ...

A poisoning case, when I was working at an animal rescue facility in southern Ontario. The town was in shock about it -- bald eagles had only recently made a bit of a comeback in the Great Lakes region, after the "Silent Spring" syndrome of the late 20th century. People were very hopeful about that bird, a young female -- seemed to indicate that the cleanup was working and things were going to be okay. Everyone at the clinic was upset, and many of us were crying when she finally succumbed.

Turned out that it was caused by bacterial contamination in a spoiled carcass she'd found, and not malicious intent ... though the presence of a particular chemical in the Oregon birds indicates that some unpleasant person is at work. Pesticide poisoning is a slow, painful way to go.


If there's any consolation -- the feathers of the slain birds, like all raptors turned in to the authorities, will be used by aboriginal groups across North America for their ceremonies. So fewer live healthy birds will be killed (most native people I know who follow traditional ways are also concerned about conservation, and would rather use parts which would otherwise be "wasted"). I didn't know this until after the eagle died, and the vet explained the arrangement to me -- I felt a little better.