Posted on 08/03/2011 7:14:41 AM PDT by JoeProBono
FREDERICKSBURG, Va., - A Virginia woman said she feels "harassed and angry" after being slapped with a $535 fine after her daughter rescued a baby woodpecker from a cat.
Alison Capo of Fredericksburg said her daughter, Skylar, 11, saved the bird from a cat in her father's backyard and she agreed to take the bird home to make sure it was not seriously injured, WUSA-TV, Washington, reported Tuesday.
Capo said she and Skylar stopped at a Lowe's on the way home and brought the bird into the home improvement store because of the heat. She said a woman inside the store confronted her and identified herself as an officer with the Virginia Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Capo said the woman told her taking or transporting the baby woodpecker is illegal because the species is protected under the Federal Migratory Bird Act.
The mother said she released the bird as soon as she arrived home and reported the incident to the department, but she encountered the same woman about two weeks later when she showed up at her front door with a Virginia State Police trooper.
Capo said she was fined $535 and cited for unlawfully taking a migratory bird, which can carry a jail sentence of up to a year.
"I feel harassed and I feel angry," Capo said.
Looks like a lazy-assed bird, if you ask me. Can even bother to stand on its own two feet. No wonder it’s going extinct.
Hey, Woody! The grubs and larva ain’t gonna fall outta the sky and into your beak, you shiftless peckerwood. Get your sexually dimorphic ass off that branch and get to work!
Search up “Peggy Ann Bargon” to see what happens when you send a dreamcatcher to Hillary Clinton.
Migratory Bird Act and Lacey act and one or two others.
If you walk in the forest and pick up a hawk or owl feather and transport it, you commit a felony.
Poor Skylar, they taught her in school that she lived in the land of the free, where we have liberty.
woodpeckers legs are designed for hanging on to trees, not walking on the ground,accounting for the slouch.
Thats what I thought yesterday reading the same story,,, where’s the evidence?
It’s just another Fed, doing what they do best,i.e.; screwing things up for the citizens of our country.
Just as I expected — always waiting for a handout!
My boys were always bringing animals or snakes home. One time they found a baby bird. We fed it with an eye dropper, it lived and when it’s feathers came in we saw it was a Cardinal. We had it for weeks and it was getting to the point of being released. My neighbor came over with her kids for the big day. We had 5 kids under the age of 8 watching as the bird flew out of the aquarium, flittered around, etc. The amazing thing was that other Cardinals came as well.......a National Geographic moment.......an out of nowhere a cat came around the corner and killed the bird! My son jumped off the deck, grabbed the cat the neck and shook it until it dropped the bird and then we had a bird funeral.
Link to yesterday’s thread below. The citation was dismissed after the publicity. Before then, F&WS sent a VA trooper with the agent to her home to issue the citation, which she did not sign. After that, a warrant was issued for her to appear in court. BTW, UPI has it wrong: According to the original story, the agency involved was the US Fish and Wildlife Service, not the VA Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2757566/posts
And that wildlife lady?? She actually contributed to the "crime" by letting the little girl walk away with the "supposed" woodpecker.
But enter this country illegaly and you get food stamps and tuition and all kinds of help from the Democr...err Government.
Now the question I have, is how did Debbie Doright know who the mother was and where she lived. Did the mother give Debbie her name and address during the store encounter (If so, she was stupid for not just making something up (I'm Nancy Pelosi and live in Washington, DC.) or did Debbie get her license plate number and track her down that way. Secondly, the response when Debbie came to the door with the Sherriff should have been, "Bird? Woodpecker? Hardware store? I vaguely remember a few weeks ago having my friends parekeet in a hardware store and some crazy women who fancied herself an wildlife expert thought it was some endangered woodpecker. Then stuck with that story if it went to court.
Ahh another greeny soon to be conservative. By the way, What do you do if you see one endangered animal eating another?
“... then we had a bird funeral”.
I am sorry... I had to laugh because my parent’s backyard looked like something out of “Pet Semetary”. Little crosses made out of popsicle sticks everywhere. Birds, rabbits, squirrels, turtles.... I “officiated” at the funeral. Granted, my parents were good sports but children have a natural desire to help injured critters. (IMHO). Your son is a good kid and the sight of him shaking the cat by the neck is funny (not then but now). Thanks!
As long as they stay in the trees, they’re fine. But start pecking on my house? That’s why I stow a pellet rifle in the shed. And sometimes, if I just wing ‘em, the cat gets a bonus.
Unfortunately, the citation was processed unintentionally despite our office's request to cancel the ticket. The Service has contacted Ms. Capo to express our regret. The Service is also sending Ms. Capo a formal letter explain the clerical error and confirming that ticket should never have been issued.
Lol! Just a simple misunderstanding. I'm sure all this bad publicity and the hordes of phone calls they've been getting had NOTHING to do with this quick reversal.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.