On Thu, 19 Nov 1998 mpdossett at juno.com wrote:


> I really believe that there are some alterior motives at work here. I
> believe that the owl was trapped simply because it was creating such a
> stir. People wanted to see it, and chances are that a few out there
> probably wanted to either kill it or use it to throw fuel to the debate
> of logging.

Absolutely there are alterior motives at work here, the more attention it
got the more chance of somebody causing the bird harm or use it to fuel
the logging debate. Trouble is that if one of these things happen the
*health* of Spot becomes an issue.

> Was it in the best interest of the bird? Probably makes no difference.
> The bird was apparently happy. It's life might have been in a little
> danger because there are some wackos out there, but let me ask you this.
> If it was something like a Xantus' hummingbird, or something equally rare
> and out of place (Hooded Warbler in Discovery Park is another good
> example) would they have tried to trap it? Of course not.

As I stated before I hardly think anybody in the general public will care
if there is a Xantus' in BC or a vagrant warbler in Discovery park. Even
if they do care neither of these species have lead to the belief that
people were losing jobs or money to protect them (at least not in WA) so I
fail to see a threat to these other vagrants.

> Of course they would want to make sure that it was healthy! Oh, and of
> course they need to put it back in its proper habitat! I'm sorry, but
> if you ask me, they should have let it be.

Michael, if memory serves me correctly you could not have gone to see the
bird until today. Might there be an alterior motive driving your opinion
here, such as not seeing the owl. I have no problem with discussing
different points of view but lets stick to relevant facts and not personal
pet peeves. Which I might add that most of the discussion so far has been
(relevant discussion that is).

Scott Downes
sdownes at u.washington.edu
Seattle WA