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Posted by Marc Kramer DVM on 11:51:47 10/14/11
This is a "heads up" that we've seen a recent spike of gunshot wounds to birds (predominantly Cooper's Hawks) in Miami-Dade County, with patients being admitted to the Wildlife Hospital at the Miami Museum of Science. In the past 4-6 weeks we have had 1-3 birds weekly coming in for severe injuries caused by gunshots. This past Monday, an arrest was made in the Kendall area when a neighbor called 911 after hearing gunshots fired. Police arrived at the scene to find a critically injured Cooper's hawk, and Fish & Wildlife officers were called in. The suspect shooter was a pigeon fancier (no surprise there) and also was charged with impersonating a officer (he tried to weasel his way out of the charges by claiming he was a federal officer). Unfortunately, the bird's injuries were so severe (multiple wing fractures and soft tissue wounds) that euthanasia was necessary. I am working on extracting the location data (where the injured bird was found) for all of the birds that were shot and admitted to the wildlife hospital this month and would be willing to share if there is interest. The great majority of the shot species have been cooper's hawks; a few were osprey and there were a few other species represented. Really sad to see this occurring on a repeat basis and am wondering if TAS can somehow play a role in getting this out in the media, making the public aware of the problem, or helping to figure out if there is a certain problem area. Have some photos to share but will upload later in a follow up post.
Marc Kramer DVM
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