Yet another bizarre animal cruelty story from Oakland. This time it's falcons.

[KamaAina]

First it was a deer who wandered onto someone's patio and got blown away. Then it was an arthritic Lab who got filled full of lead Oscar Grant-style by a trigger-happy cop. And now it's falcons.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_18368925

The female, who has been named Hiya, happens to be the mate of Hiko, who was born atop San Jose City Hall in 2008 and has been living in Oakland ever since, according to Glenn Stewart, director of Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group at Long Marine Laboratory at the University of California Santa Cruz and the biologist who tracks all the peregrine falcons living in the Bay Area.

Hiya was found shot near the corner of Laguna Avenue and Alida Street, not too far from the private Head Royce School and Mormon Temple, on June 1, according to McCoy. Her daughter, named Marina, was found shot nearby on Tiffin Road and Whittle Avenue on June 10....

Stewart has made it his personal mission to drum up reward money and help the state wardens. He's collected pledges from falcon lovers throughout the Bay Area, including many of the San Jose "Falconatics," who spend many hours tracking the lives of the falcons that live at City Hall. That $1,000 will be awarded to the person who gives information leading to the arrest and conviction of the shooter.

"I find it hard to believe that anyone would fire a weapon in a neighborhood, not to mention with intent to kill an animal like a peregrine falcon," Stewart said. "That it happened twice is beyond belief. Someone must have information.''

:cry:

[MadHound]

1. Truly a shame about the peregrines,

And I'm not trying to trivialize their plight here.

But it is these sorts of incidents that give me hope that when police start deploying low level drones over major cities, they will become targets.

A sad day for the birds however, hopefully they wind up in a good situation.

[semillama]

2. Wonder if this is linked to the roller pigeon enthusiasts?

They hate birds of prey because their hobby is to breed pigeons to be the most appealing prey target imaginable. Well, they wouldn't describe it that way, but that's the end result.

[guruoo]

3. "(If) 50 percent of the 250 roller members in L.A. are killing 10 hawks a year, you’re talking...

1,250 hawks in L.A. alone,”

From Audubonmagazine.org:

“Within five minutes I heard people talking about killing hawks,” he told me. “One of the first things every person I spoke with said was how much he hated hawks and falcons and all the ways he killed them. In half an hour I realized this was going to be a huge case. There are about 250 roller club members in Los Angeles alone. It’s a worldwide hobby. I realized that if everyone I talked to is killing hawks, then the majority of roller pigeon club members in the U.S. are killing hawks.”

In the next 14 months Newcomer infiltrated three clubs in the Los Angeles area and made contact with about 60 members, all of whom also belonged to the NBRC. In all that time he encountered only one member who said he didn’t kill raptors. The lowest claim was 10 kills a year; the highest, 52—this by the NBRC’s national president, Juan Navarro of Los Angeles.

“If we conservatively say that 50 percent of the 250 roller members in L.A. are killing 10 hawks a year, you’re talking 1,250 hawks in L.A. alone,” declares Newcomer. “That’s a huge impact as they migrate along the Pacific Flyway.”

http://www.audubonmagazine.org/incite/incite0805.html


In 2007, a highly publicized sting run by the US Fish & Wildlife Service in southern California called Operation High Roller, netted seven hawk-killers in Los Angeles, as well as others in Oregon and Texas. This was not a bad apple situation either, the individuals directly involved in trapping and killing thousands of what were mostly Cooper’s Hawks and Peregrine Falcons, were leaders in the communities and even presidents of various pigeon clubs. Juan Navarro, president of the national umbrella group for roller pigeons, a breed specifically selected to have an seizure mid-flight that causes them to plummet, spinning, towards the ground that makes them easy targets for birds of prey, was one of the seven indicted. This particular gem of humanity had this to say to a FWS agent:

Navarro allegedly told an undercover Fish and Wildlife Service agent that he likes to “pummel” the hawks that he catches with a stick. “You’ll see, it gets the frustration out,” Navarro said, according to a Fish and Wildlife agent’s affidavit.

http://thedrinkingbirdblog.com/2010/03/26/the-case-against-pigeon-clubs-or-why-tysons-show-is-not-for-the-birds/

[formercia]

5. Assholes. n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. sad

[LooseWilly]

6. Odd... the Dimond District is actually a pretty nice neighborhood...

It's hardly the part of town you'd expect to have people taking random shots at things... let alone trying to shoot hawks out of the sky.

Maybe there's some asshole out there worried about his/her cats?...

[KamaAina]

8. Assholes usually do not have cats

i.e. cat people are seldom assholes.

[Ignis]

10. There's no way you can objectively prove that.

...But you're right, anyway. ;)

[roomfullofmirrors]

7. Is that worse than the scores of golden eagles being massacred by the altamont pass wind turbines?

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/06/local/la-me-adv-wind-eagles-20110606

[Ignis]

9. Does it have to be a competition?

:shrug:

[KittyWampus]

11. You don't mention the replacement of older turbines w/newer ones that reduce fatalities by 79%

Environmentalists have persuaded the energy industry and federal authorities — often through litigation — to modify the size, shape and placement of wind turbines. Last year, five local Audubon chapters, the California attorney general's office and Californians for Renewable Energy reached an agreement with NextEra Energy Resources to expedite the replacement of its old wind turbines in the Altamont Pass with new, taller models less likely to harm birds such as golden eagles and burrowing owls that tend to fly low.

The neighboring Buena Vista Wind Energy Project recently replaced 179 aging wind turbines with 38 newer and more powerful 1-megawatt turbines. That repowering effort has reduced fatality rates by 79% for all raptor species and 50% for golden eagles, according to a study by Shawn Smallwood, an expert on raptor ecology in wind farms.