Pelicans found with pouches slashed in Keys

BIG PINE KEY, Fla. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the deaths of several brown pelicans found with their pouches slashed in the Florida Keys.

Florida Keys Wildlife Refuge Director Maya Totman said Friday that 10 pelicans have been found dead.

The birds are being found with the large pouches they use to catch food almost entirely cut through. The pelicans are left unable to hunt and swallow their food, leaving them to starve to death slowly.

"With the way the cuts are done, fish slide out of the pouch and the bird can't eat. It gets weaker and weaker and dies," Totman tells The Key West Citizen (http://bit.ly/J5d4ju )

Continued