Posted on 01/19/2005 9:51:40 AM PST by Mo1
Bald eagles found slaughtered in B.C.
By AMY CARMICHAEL
VANCOUVER (CP) - A flash of white feathers lured Julie Bryson-McElwee's dog into the bush.
She followed when he didn't come back. A dead bald eagle lay on the forest floor. Lunging to keep her pet away from the carcass, Bryson-McElwee stumbled on Wednesday across a shallow grave, piled with 14 of the protected species. The legs and tail feathers had been cut off, possibly for sale on the black market.
"It's just sickening," Bryson-McElwee said in a telephone interview on Thursday. "Whoever did this had a real operation going, there were garbage bags all around the grave and in it. It looked to me like they were killed somewhere else and brought here to be buried."
She was so upset by her ugly discovery that she stayed with the birds for hours waiting for police, worried that someone would try to remove the bodies once the story hit the news.
"I was upset, now I'm really angry," she said.
Wildlife officers investigating the killings say they aren't uncommon.
"We have found birds mutilated like this over the years," said Rick Hahn, a senior conservation officer for the Lower Mainland. "We suspect there is a black market trade in the talons. Eagles are traditionally used by First Nations people for cultural ceremonies.
"However, we haven't made that link in this case."
Fines for the crime can range as high as $50,000 for killing an eagle and up to $100,000 for trafficking in a wildlife species.
Thor Froslev, manager of the Brackendale Eagle Reserve where 1,975 eagles were spotted this year in the park's 19th annual bird count, said he's not optimistic anyone will be caught.
"How will they find them?" he asked.
"I'm just sick about it. What sad news, and we've had it before."
Over the years he has, on occasion, found eagles shot dead and similarly excised for parts.
"I understand they are wanted for ornaments and for medicine in native cultures," he said.
Chief Bill Williams of the nearby Squamish First Nation said eagles are revered by natives, who use bird parts from carcasses found by the provincial conservation office.
"We don't go out into the wild and take them ourselves," he said.
When dead birds are passed on to a band they are blessed to release their spirit and prayers are said to apologize on behalf of man for their death.
"Because it flies so high, the eagle is closest to the creator. It brings prayers to the creator," Williams said.
Bev Day, director of OWL, a wildlife rehabilitation society, said she hopes the bodies of the slaughtered eagles found in North Vancouver are given to First Nations people for that treatment.
She recently released four bald eagles in the area the carcasses were found and worries they might be hers.
"With their legs cut off, we couldn't immediately tell if they had been wearing bands," said Day. "I hope investigators are going to comb that area with metal detectors, maybe we can find some identification bands and figure out where they came from."
She said it would be easy for someone to lure eagles this time of year.
"They are normally up in the Squamish area now, eating the spawning salmon but with the rivers so high a lot of the salmon has washed away. If someone had a bunch of fish and put it out I think it would attract them pretty quickly," she said.
About half of the world's 70,000 bald eagles live in Alaska. Combined with British Columbia's population of about 20,000, the northwest coast of North America is by far their greatest stronghold.
They flourish here in part because of the salmon. Dead or dying fish are an important food source for all bald eagles.
Day, who nurses birds of prey that have been poisoned or shot and returns them to the wild, would like to teach the birds killers a lesson.
"I hope the judge gives them to me to do some community service," she said. "I've got some really nasty jobs that need doing, cleaning out the duck pond comes to mind. I'd give them a really small shovel and a small pail."
The Bush line was there with Washington and the boys.
You havn't seen a Hunter Scarecrow before?
Thanks for all the interesting pics, Resty.
Been a busy one here...the MIL is sick as a cat, and I've been food shopping for her, among the other chores.
Uh-oh
That's a shame about family splitting up. You might just have to get your M-I-L drunk to calm her down.
Hmmm .... well, that might not work. Some people get more wound up when drunk....
Sorry to hear about your MIL Loddy. Hope some nice warm sunshine happens soon to perk her up.
Loddy, I think the cat mentality is catching, don't you think? Most folks say "sick as a dog". LOL Sorry to hear about your MIL. Is it the flu?
Poor Mickey... my daughter made him stay in the bathroom (quite large) last night and today because she is afraid he will hurt his littleself if left to run the house. I swear, she was never this protective of her kids. But, Mickey had a good time sending them off to school and work. He helped everyone dress by winding himself around their legs to trip them. And my daughter caught him up on the table tasting the kids oatmeal and cereal. They thought it funny, but she didn't. LOL
This should get interesting.
that awful story has been on our local news for a couple of days now.
Email:
Subject: Fw: Bill Moyer's comments
January 4, 2005
Today, during an afternoon conference that wrapped up my project of the last 18 months, one of my Euro colleagues tossed this out to no one in particular:
"See, this is why George Bush is so dumb, there's a disaster in the world and he sends an Aircraft Carrier..."
After which he and many of my Euro colleagues laughed out loud.and then they looked at me. I wasn't laughing, and neither was my Hindi friend sitting next to me, who has lost family in the disaster. I'm afraid I was "unprofessional", I let it loose -
"Hmmm, let's see, what would be the ideal ship to send to a disaster, now what kind of ship would we want? Something with its own Inexhaustible power supply? Something that can produce 900,000 gallons of fresh water a day from sea water?
Something with its own airfield? So that after producing the fresh water, it could help distribute it? Something with 4 hospitals and lots of open space for emergency supplies? Something with a global communications facility to make the coordination of disaster relief in the region easier? Well "Franz", us peasants in America call that kind of ship an "Aircraft Carrier." We have 12 of them. How many do you have? Oh that's right, NONE. Lucky for you and the rest of the world, we are the kind of people who share. Even with people we don't like. In fact, if memory serves, once upon a time we peasants spent a ton of money and lives rescuing people who we had once tried to kill and who tried to kill us. Do you know who those people were? that's right Franz, Europeans. There is a French Aircraft carrier? where is it? Right where it belongs! In France of course! Oh why should the French Navy dirty their uniforms helping people on the other side of the globe. How Simplesse... The day an American has to move a European out of the way to help in some part of the world it will be a great day in the world
...
" The room fell silent.
My Hindi friend then said quietly to the Euros: "Can you let your hatred of George Bush end for just one minute? There are people dying! And what are your countries doing? Amazon.com has helped more than France has. You all have a role to play in the world, why can't you see that? Thank God for the US Navy, they don't have to come and help, but they are. They helped you once and you should all thank God they did. They didn't have to, and no one but them would have done so. I'm ashamed of you all..."
He left the room, shaking and in tears. The frustration of being on the other side of the globe, unable to do anything to assist and faced with people who could not set aside their asininity long enough to reach out and help was too much for him to bear.
I just shook my head and left. The Euros stood speechless. Later in the breakroom, one of the laughing Euros caught me and extended his hand in an apology. I asked him where he was from, he said "a town outside of Berlin." He is a young man, in his early 20's. I asked him if he knew of a man named Gail Halvorsen. He said no. I said "that's a shame" and walked away to find my Hindi friend.
For those of you who may not remember, Gail Halvorsen was the transport pilot responsible for the "candy drop" during the Berlin airlift. They called him the "Candy Bomber" as he dropped goodies for all the Berlin children.
Matt Archer
BOEING Flight Operations
Transport Test Pilot
Nesting Barn Owl setting on 4 eggs.
.....Westy.....
loddy, surely those comments were not made by the Bill Moyers, were they?
Some believe this suppose to be a chatty type thread where is all the chatters?
Chatty
Inclined to chat; friendly and talkative.
Full of or in the style of light informal talk: a chatty letter.
That means Lodwick; sweetliberty; nully; So9 no serious debates on pet peeves such as politcal, welfare, religion etc!
Only air heads and bimbo talk...........LOL
Awesome loddy!! Shame on those ungrateful wretches!! They are no different today than they were 60 years ago.
We have a hot water shower, private outhouse, propane powered refridgerator, propane stove, running water, fully furnished, and solar panel powered lights. It's pretty cute inside, really rough outside.
Love being spurred, as long as the spurs aren't too sharp! Having a cocktail, and then will try to clean up some of the mess. ;)
Al has "ladder knees", after putting up all those lights and the new fan. He is "Manflattening" them out...lol.
Great shots Grans what with that blue frog?
LOL........
Owwie.
Knees are precious commodities.
Reported by Moyers, as I read it.
You be quiet...that's Loddy's frog.. ;)
Haven't been posting much, but have loved all the pics you guys posted.
Westy, I love those Expresso places.. Nice! ;)
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