Rare Bird Discovered in Pacific, Euthanized for ‘Collection’

Mon, 10/12/2015 - 10:59am

Seth Augenstein, Digital Reporter

Researchers were traveling through the dense forest of the Pacific island of Guadalcanal. They heard a familiar call, and they saw a bird with a blue and gold plumage. It was a bird Chris Filardi and his team had been searching for, for 20 years.

The scientists set up a net, trapping the Moustached Kingfisher – a “gorgeous, strong and raucous male.” They photographed it. Then they killed it – to “collect” it as a specimen.

In the days since the announcement of the discovery of the bird – the first-ever sighting of a male variety of the bird – there has been an outcry about the euthanizing of the bird. The response has been so intense that Filardi has responded at length to justify his collection of the “specimen,” through an Audubon Society publication.

“This was not a ‘trophy hunt,’” wrote Filardi, director of Pacific Programs for the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. “Collecting the kingfisher and other biological specimens were team decisions made in the broader context of this work. Nonetheless, I feel it is important for me to personally articulate why I collected this particular specimen.”

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Washington state euthanizes 300 cockfighting birds

Published time: April 23, 2014 15:22

After discovering a suspected cockfighting farm and arresting the man believed to be running the operation, Washington state officials euthanized hundreds of chickens found to be raised on steroids.

The raid occurred on Monday after law enforcement authorities obtained a warrant to search the compound in Rochester, Washington. One person was arrested – 35-year-old Victor Hugo Gallegos Chavez – and is believed to have been raising the chickens for cockfights held in Oregon, Texas, and Mexico.

While still legal in Mexico and other countries, cockfighting has been outlawed across the United States.

Speaking with Reuters, Thurston County Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Wheeler said officials seized 240 roosters and 60 hens in the raid – but all 300 had to be euthanized after steroids were discovered in their system. The presence of the drug made them unsafe for humans to eat and “unsuitable for rehabilitation.”

In addition to the animals, the News Tribune is reporting that police also found small knives and slashers, which they suspect were attached to the chickens prior to fights. Coping saws were also found, and are typically used to cut a chicken’s natural spur off its leg in order to attach a knife.

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Cal woman hides bird rather than give to state

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.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Cal-woman-hides-bird-rather-than-give-to-state-4125020.php#ixzz2FPLXferX