Animal-rights activist charged with possession feathers of protected birds

[Desertdog]

Animal-rights activist charged with possession feathers of protected birds
http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=5200188


An animal-rights activist awaiting sentencing for disrupting a mountain-lion hunt in Sabino Canyon has been additionally charged with possessing the feathers of a golden eagle and other protected birds.


The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cited Rodney Coronado last Friday on two misdemeanor counts of possessing golden eagle feathers and migratory bird feathers, said Frank Solis, special agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Solis said the feathers were found at Coronado's Tucson home in February when the FBI arrested him on unrelated charges.

In addition to the eagle feathers, Solis said agents found feathers of a great horned owl, barn owl, great blue heron, redtail hawk, Cooper's hawk and Harris hawk.

The citations, which are misdemeanor charges, seek a combined fine of $1,350.

Coronado is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 7 in U.S. District Court for conspiracy to prevent federal officials from doing their duty, interfering with forest officers and degradation of government property.

Those charges were filed after Coronado and two others were arrested in March 2004 as U.S. Forest Service and Arizona Game and Fish officers hunted for mountain lions that they said had lost their fear of humans.

Coronado led the disruption of the hunt as an action of the Tucson chapter of Earth First.

 

[Dr.Who]

Not that I'm supporting the animal rights person.... However, inquiring minds want to know.....

If a birder who watches birds on a regular bases (or anyone for that matter) finds an protected birds feather on the ground.... They can not pick it up to keep it and enjoy it? If they can not pick it up, then it will decay, because it was not being used by the bird or protected by the person who most likely put it into a special display....

Gee, bird feathers fall out from time to time and the bird will re-grow a new one.... It seems that the pendulum of protection has swung a bit too far on this one...

I know the law is in place so people do not seek out and gather feathers from a live bird or worse kill an Eagle to get its feathers. I believe that the only people that are allowed to have eagle feathers are native Americans... And they only gather them from the ground.

I'm kind of glad that an animal rights activist got stung on this one.... It was most likely one of his kind that developed the law....

 

[WayneConrad]

Indeed. If I were on the jury, and he convinced me that he found these feathers on the ground, I'm not going to convict him. Hypocrite, yes. But if he only found the feathers, he certainly didn't harm any protected birds, which is the whole point of the law.

 

[Ferrari308]

If these guys are members of PETA, I would throw them in jail for life.

There was a segment on 60 minutes about the Liberation Army, a group of animal rights activists who burn down university research centers because the research involves animals. They think a bird is more important than finding a cure for cancer.

Then there was the PETA protestors at KFC. They threw fake blood on a family leaving the resturant, hitting a 8 year old kid. They screamed at the family, calling them "murderers".

Animal rights activists are nuts. They think birds are more important than people.

 

[MSGT9410]

And they say that what we do to livestock is "Inhumane" and un-natural. Why do you think our jaw structure is the way it is if it was un-natural?

Quick death, feed 50 people.


I suggest that they go watch what a polar bear does to a baby seal, then come and tell me that grilling a burger is inhumane.

 

[gunsmith]

har har

Ironic justice...

An American Indian was charged with the same thing and convicted a few years ago, I don't remember much about the case except that he really found them on the ground.

I am glad that they're getting charged with as much as they can.
Mountain lions are beautiful majestic creatures, and we are there natural prey.

They need to have a great deal of fear of humans, it's our only real protection.

They attack from behind and chew your face off first...

I've never hunted but I am going to get mtn lion tags because there is a big one near my friends ranch. & I am really attached to my friends doggies and children.

 

[beerslurpy]

What compelling governmental interest is served by criminalizing possession of bird feathers? Even if they happen to be rare bird feathers.

I can see bird feathers as being evidence of having killed the original owner of the feathers, but the killing of the protected bird species should be the crime. Birdwatchers and hikers who pick up feathers shouldnt be subject to prosecution of any kind. To be honest, in the absence of any dead birds, there shouldnt be any prosecutions for this sort of thing.

 

[creitzel]

Great, yet another thing I have to worry about.

My little girl loves feathers, and loves gathering them while we are out and about.

Now I have to worry whether the feathers she is collecting are going to send me to prison.

 

[Justin]

That wacky Rodney!

What madcap hijinks will he be part of next?

 

[Henry Bowman]

If a birder who watches birds on a regular bases (or anyone for that matter) finds an protected birds feather on the ground.... They can not pick it up to keep it and enjoy it?

Correct. That is federal law.

If they can not pick it up, then it will decay, because it was not being used by the bird or protected by the person who most likely put it into a special display....

Tough. This falls into the .gov's "not my problem" category.

 

[AJAX22]

I pesonally don't see what the big deal is, its not like they were fully automatic assult feathers with high capacity magazines.

Its not as if they were inatimate objects which in themselves caused the naturalists to kill all of the birds off, these are rare collectable feathers, not like the cheap 'saturday night special' feathers like those from seagulls and chickens which polute our streets and cause criminals to prey upon the defensless.

Criminalizing posession of 'things'= Dumb

 

[Biker]

Gunsmith...

I've had cougar roasts done up in a crock pot and you can't tell the difference between the cat and a good pork roast.

Biker

 

[mrmeval]

Planting feathers is a ploy to cause a land owner grief in several western states.

 

[Preacherman]

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