PALMDALE, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California woman sent a raven into hiding
rather than let fish and game officials seize and kill the bird
named Edgar.
"The state game warden threatened me with a
misdemeanor citation and said Edgar would have to be euthanized," said Debby
Porter, 59, who lives in Palmdale, 50 miles north of Los Angeles. "A
misdemeanor doesn't mean that much to me, but I don't want
Edgar euthanized."
Porter bought Edgar for $2,000 in 2006 in
Alabama and raised him by hand at her Palmdale home where she's built two
elaborate aviaries for blind or injured crows and ravens.
Keeping Edgar and the 20 other birds violates
the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, wildlife officials told the Los
Angeles Times.
On Aug. 29, U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service agents took 20 birds, but left Edgar behind,
saying he was an African pied-crow and brown-necked raven hybrid, not a North
American migratory bird.
It wasn't long before the California
Department of Fish and Game told her she had to turn over Edgar
because she didn't have a permit to keep him.
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