Illegal Birds Of Prey Shootings Hurting More Than Just Birds
BROOMFIELD, Colo. (CBS4) - Don't hunt the hunters. That's the message from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. They've seen an increase in birds of prey being shot and that means more of them are ending up in rehabilitation.
"It's not necessary. It's something we can prevent. It's hard to see so many birds come in," said Desirae Kovacich, the ICU manager for the Birds of Prey Foundation in Broomfield.
X-ray after X-ray there shows the number of birds that have come into their facility that have been shot.
"This one, it looks like birdshot because there's just fragmented pieces in there," she said scrolling through the images.
In just a few months, the nonprofit -- which runs solely on donations -- has treated 11 birds for injuries caused mostly by pellet or BB guns.
"It is hard for us. It costs us money to run lead tests. It costs us money for us do X-rays, so it is costly and it is time consuming," Kovacich said.
The number was enough to prompt Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials to alert the public, and remind Coloradans that birds of prey are protected both by state and federal law.
"We are talking about eagles, hawks, falcons or owls, and they are defined in Colorado as a non-game species, so they are not a huntable species," said CPW spokesman Jason Clay.
Clay says there's no clear explanation for why so many birds are being shot.
"You don't know the exact reason why, but if people are seeing this taking place, if they let us know, this is something that we can investigate," he said.
Kovacich says she's disappointed by the number of injured birds he's seeing.
"It's entirely a different thing to know that someone has intentionally shot at this bird," she said.
Wildlife officials suggest that if residents want to keep birds of prey away from their homes, they should haze them by using a hose to spray water at the animals or call their office for pointers.