Courtesy photo by West Sound Wildlife Shelter
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The bald eagles poisoned last week as they fed off horse carcasses in Winlock have recovered and are set to be released tomorrow back in the same area they were found.
“It’s mating season, we need to get them back out there,” Lisa Horn, executive director of the West Sound Wildlife Shelter, said today.
The six birds were taken to a center in Olympia and then transferred to the Bainbridge Island wildlife hospital on Sunday where they received around-the-clock care, including an antidote. They were critical, Horn said.
When they arrived, some were vomiting and convulsing, others were unconscious, she said. By Tuesday, four of them had been moved to an outside cage where they were regaining their strength.
Horn said they ingested meat from two horses which had been euthanized four days earlier and left in a field.
The potent drug pentobarbital sodium is used by veterinarians for humane, painless and rapid euthanasia.
Bald eagles are no longer listed as an endangered species, but are protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. They can’t be hunted or harmed and even the use of their feathers and body parts is highly regulated, said Joan Jewett, a spokesperson for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Fish and Wildlife authorities are investigating the situation, according to Jewett.
“We’re in the early stages,” she said.
A violation of the act is a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of one year in jail and $100,000 fine, for each bird, she said.
The (Longview) Daily News reported on Wednesday a seventh eagle rehabilitated in Portland was released back to a Winlock pasture.
One is an adult male, the rest are 2-years-old or younger, with just one of those juveniles being female, according to Horn.
“They are all doing really, really well,” she said.
Horn estimated each day of treatment cost more than $3,000.
West Sound Wildlife Shelter announced today the formation of a fund specifically to care for bald eagles at their clinic, that would also include educational outreach.
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For background, read “Read about at least seven bald eagles accidentally poisoned in Winlock …” from Tuesday March 26, 2013, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter