By Robert DeWitt Outdoors Writer Published: Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 9:38 p.m.
TUSCALOOSA | It was hard for Dee Sullins to believe what he had done.
“I called everybody I know and said, ‘Hey, I just held an eagle,’” Sullins said. “I was awe struck over it.”
Unfortunately, Sullins, director of the Hale County Animal Shelter, was holding the immature bald eagle because it was injured. Sullins is equipped to deal with domestic animals so when the huge bird of prey showed up at the shelter, he was surprised.
Earlier this month, a hunter Sullins knows only as “Mr. Johnson” brought the big bird to him. Johnson had been hunting in the Lock 7 area.
“He found a coyote trying to attack the eagle in the woods,” Sullins said. “He was able to get the coyote off the eagle and bring it to me.”
Sullins didn’t have the expertise or facilities to take care of a wounded raptor. He tried calling the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries but didn’t get the help he needed.
So he used his contacts in the animal rescue community and called Amy Giblin of Alabamians Defending Animal Rights. Giblin got in touch with Mike Seremet of the Alabama Wildlife Center at Oak Mountain, which rehabilitates injured wild animals.
The Wildlife Center sheltered the injured eagle overnight. But Auburn University’s School of Veterinary Medicine’s Raptor Center is best equipped to provide help to injured birds of prey. The eagle was taken there for treatment and healing.
Liz Crandall, a raptor rehabilitation specialist, has been in charge of the eagle’s recovery. Auburn’s veterinarians discovered that the eagle had a broken wing where it had been shot with a shotgun and it had wounds where the coyote had bitten it.
The gunshot wound had healed naturally and didn’t require treatment.
“She did have some soft tissue trauma that looked like a bite wound,” Crandall said. “That was pretty severe.”
A veterinarian removed dead and infected tissue from around the wound, cleaned it and stitched up the wound. Since then, the big bird has been resting in a cage, eating and gaining strength.
“The fracture has already healed on its own,” Crandall said. “She has good range of motion in that wing. We won’t know if she can be released until we put him in the aviary.”
It could be a couple more weeks before the eagle can go into the aviary. And then it could need some time in the aviary, an enclosure large enough for birds to fly in, to regain its strength.
Crandall said they have no way of knowing exactly what happened. The eagle might have been on the ground for as long as a couple of weeks.
She really isn’t sure whether the gunshot brought the eagle down or whether it was something else. But it had been severely weakened by malnutrition and exhaustion and was possibly in shock when the hunter found it. That is probably why the hunter and Sullins were able to handle it.
“She’s feeling better now,” Crandall said with a laugh. “She’s not easy to handle.”
If the big bird isn’t able to recover enough to be released, the Raptor Center will try to locate a home for it with someone who has a license to possess an eagle. It would likely be an educational facility like the Raptor Center.
Crandall said she really doesn’t know the eagle’s sex. She refers to it as “she” because it is a large bird. They don’t give the injured animals names, she said, because they are wild animals and should be treated that way.
Sullins said he is amazed that anyone would shoot an eagle. Their size makes them easily identifiable and it is a federal offense to shoot one. Officers from the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries have contacted him about an investigation into the shooting.
“That’s like spitting on America,” Sullins said. “It’s such a majestic thing you’re destroying. How un-American can you be to shoot an eagle?”
He said he’s proud of having a role in trying to put right that senseless act.
“To think that I played a part, as well as the hunter, ADAR, Oak Mountain and the Raptor Center in saving America’s bird, to know I had a part made me feel pretty proud,” Sullins said.
Liz Crandall, a raptor rehabilitation specialist, has been in charge of the eagle’s recovery. Auburn’s veterinarians discovered that the eagle had a broken wing where it had been shot with a shotgun and it had wounds where the coyote had bitten it.
The gunshot wound had healed naturally and didn’t require treatment.
“She did have some soft tissue trauma that looked like a bite wound,” Crandall said. “That was pretty severe.”
A veterinarian removed dead and infected tissue from around the wound, cleaned it and stitched up the wound. Since then, the big bird has been resting in a cage, eating and gaining strength.
“The fracture has already healed on its own,” Crandall said. “She has good range of motion in that wing. We won’t know if she can be released until we put him in the aviary.”
It could be a couple more weeks before the eagle can go into the aviary. And then it could need some time in the aviary, an enclosure large enough for birds to fly in, to regain its strength.
Crandall said they have no way of knowing exactly what happened. The eagle might have been on the ground for as long as a couple of weeks.
She really isn’t sure whether the gunshot brought the eagle down or whether it was something else. But it had been severely weakened by malnutrition and exhaustion and was possibly in shock when the hunter found it. That is probably why the hunter and Sullins were able to handle it.
“She’s feeling better now,” Crandall said with a laugh. “She’s not easy to handle.”
If the big bird isn’t able to recover enough to be released, the Raptor Center will try to locate a home for it with someone who has a license to possess an eagle. It would likely be an educational facility like the Raptor Center.
Crandall said she really doesn’t know the eagle’s sex. She refers to it as “she” because it is a large bird. They don’t give the injured animals names, she said, because they are wild animals and should be treated that way.
Sullins said he is amazed that anyone would shoot an eagle. Their size makes them easily identifiable and it is a federal offense to shoot one. Officers from the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries have contacted him about an investigation into the shooting.
“That’s like spitting on America,” Sullins said. “It’s such a majestic thing you’re destroying. How un-American can you be to shoot an eagle?”
He said he’s proud of having a role in trying to put right that senseless act.
“To think that I played a part, as well as the hunter, ADAR, Oak Mountain and the Raptor Center in saving America’s bird, to know I had a part made me feel pretty proud,” Sullins said.
