Dennis wrote:

>Of course, non-native starlings and house sparrows and native crows are
>also rehabbed (correct me if I'm wrong), and there has been much
>discussion in this forum about their effects on bird populations.

>Rehabilitators: are there any species you receive that you routinely
>euthanize because you *don't* wish to save them, presumably for some of
>the reasons expressed above? I guess making these kinds of decisions is
>what I was talking about earlier when I suggested realistic, reasonable,
>and responsible rehabilitation.

This is in fact a hot-button topic on the WLREHAB list, altho things have been
quiet for a while. Some states will not allow licensed wildlife rehabilitators
to treat non-native species such as starlings or house sparrows. I'm not sure
how they define non-native, surely they include things that are not originally
from their state, but anyway, that settles the issue there. In other states,
rehab centers have to make their own
decisions and there's quite a diversity of opinion.

If it is true that the efforts of rehabilitators are an insignificant drop in
the big bucket of nature, then maybe it's not worth fretting about. We're
fortunate in Alaska to have neither a starling problem (yet - there is a small
population of them) nor house sparrows. Bird TLC doesn't handle pigeons because
of the risk of volunteers contracting psitticosis. We do accept corvids, those
nest-robbing devils, and get a lot of them in. All our intakes must eventually
be either released, euthanized or used in an education program (either ours or
that of another facility). We have a brown-headed cowbird in our education
program and his life history makes for an interesting presentation. One can give
a historical overview of the birds that have been labelled "bad."

P.S. Just read Peggi's response and was taken aback at how intrusive FWS is on
the rehab scene there. They have been very easy on us (knock on wood), and in
fact seem to be very relieved to have a place to bring injured eagles, and
especially, to have a different phone number to tell the public to call.

Chris Maack
Bird Treatment & Learning Center
73201.3124 at compuserve.com