Subject: Thomas, The Bald Eagle
Date: Jan 27 14:52:01 2000
From: Lydia - lgaebe at email.msn.com


Here's a story from the Bakersfield Californian. The teacher mentioned in
the story,
Marie Cunniffe, is MY FORMER STUDENT!

Say your prayers for "Thomas".


Taking care of Thomas
Filed: 01/26/2000

By OLIVIA GARCIA
Californian staff writer
e-mail: ogarcia at bakersfield.com


A bullet has shattered the freedom of Thomas, a bald eagle rescued by
strangers when they found him in the middle of a rural road.

Though the threatened creature - named by staff members after the bald
veterinarian who is nursing him back to health - is doing fine at
Bakersfield Veterinary Hospital, he will never fly again. His fate remains
unclear.

Thomas, whiteheaded with brown feathers and yellow eyes, is believed to be
part of an educational or scientific study. The approximately 2-foot-tall,
8-pound, 10-ounce bald eagle was found wearing a silver band on his right
leg and a copper band on his left leg, both engraved with numbers and
symbols indicating they were bird bands. Thomas also wore two orange wing
tags with the number "94."

Thomas' left wing was shot by someone, possibly with a .22-caliber rifle,
said Thomas Banks, the veterinarian whose nickname is "Bald Eagle."

That bullet shattered his wing and led Banks to trim the bones at the tip of
Thomas' wing.

"He could have died," Banks said. "His wing was pretty damaged. His bones
were sticking out. You could see the soft tissue, kind of like hamburger."

Thomas, however, appears to be improving. He is alert, eating powdered
supplements and making a fuss whenever he is picked up. Banks plans to start
feeding him fish soon.

But he will remain at the veterinary hospital for a week or until his wound
heals.

Meanwhile, the search for those studying him continues.

The bands are usually used by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife and other groups for
studies and identification of the bird's protection status, said Ted Murphy,
biology professor and director of the Facility for Animal Care and Treatment
at Cal State Bakersfield.

The wing streamers also indicate he was used for study or identification,
Murphy added.

Murphy has contacted U.S. Fish & Wildlife.

He is leading the effort to find those who tagged Thomas, as well as the
assailant who cut short the bird's ability to fly.

"The hand part ... that was shattered," Murphy said, comparing the bird's
body to a human's. "The hand part is a little piece of the wing, but it
holds the big, long flight feathers."

The sad thing is that the shooter may never be caught, Murphy said.

"Whether somebody shot this one and didn't try to recover it or shot it and
couldn't recover it, I don't know," Murphy said. "There are people who are
stupid enough to shoot anything that moves and not know they're violating
something."

The good news is that Thomas is alive.

"It could live for a long, long time," said Murphy. "If they're shot in the
body, they're probably going to die. But, if their wing is injured, they can
often survive on the ground for some time until somebody courageous enough
will rescue them. Hopefully, I'll get to find out who that somebody is."

That may be a little difficult.

The pair of strangers, a man and a woman in their late 20s or early 30s,
didn't leave their names when they turned in the bird at Arvin High School.

The couple apparently saw the bird in the middle of rural Sunset Boulevard
as they were driving on their way to visit the man's parents, who live in
the Arvin area.

At first, science teacher Linda Morales didn't know what to think when she
was approached by the man holding a bald eagle wrapped in a blood-covered
sheet. It was staff day at the school.

"He came up and said, 'I have an injured eagle,'" Morales recalls. "They
didn't know where else to take it."

Soon, Morales and other teachers, including Marie Cunniffe and Johnny
Watson, joined in to help.

They figure Thomas was probably in the Arvin area looking for water and
fish.

"He was just gorgeous," Morales said. "You could see three or four inches of
yellow pointed, curvy beak, white hair and yellow eyes just peering out from
this sheet and checking everybody out."

Once Murphy's group was contacted, the teachers were instructed to take
Thomas to the vet. It was at that time that the teachers asked for the
strangers' names, as they loaded the bird into a Chevy Suburban.

But the pair walked away without answering.

"The gentleman really went that extra mile," Cunniffe said.






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Lydia Gaebe In Kent, WA USA
lgaebe at msn.com
Until I get a new website up, be sure and visit this one:
http://joy.songbird.com/zisa/