Child faces $535 fine and jail time for rescuing baby bird

I am a bird lover, and this story just makes me sick.

Excerpt:

Eleven-year-old aspiring veterinarian, Skylar Capo, sprang into action the second she learned that a baby woodpecker in her Dad’s backyard was about to be eaten by the family cat.

“I’ve just always loved animals,” said Skylar Capo. “I couldn’t stand to watch it be eaten.”

Skylar couldn’t find the woodpecker’s mother, so she brought it to her own mother, Alison Capo, who agreed to take it home.

“She was just going to take care of it for a day or two, make sure it was safe and uninjured, and then she was going to let it go,” said Capo.

But on the drive home, the Capo family stopped at a Lowes in Fredericksburg and they brought the bird inside because of the heat. That’s when they were confronted by a fellow shopper who said she worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“She was really nervous. She was shaking. Then she pulled out a badge,” said Capo.

The problem was that the woodpecker is a protected species under the Federal Migratory Bird Act. Therefore, it is illegal to take or transport a baby woodpecker. The Capo family says they had no idea.

“I was a little bit upset because I didn’t want my mom to get in trouble,” said Skylar.

So as soon as the Capo family returned home, they say they opened the cage, the bird flew away, and they reported it to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“They said that’s great, that’s exactly what we want to see,” said Capo. “We thought that we had done everything that we could possibly do.”

But roughly two weeks later, that same woman from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service showed up at Capo’s front door. This time, Capo says the woman was accompanied by a state trooper. Capo refused to accept a citation, but was later mailed a notice to appear in U.S. District Court for unlawfully taking a migratory bird. She’s also been slapped with a $535 fine.

Why are we paying the government to take away our liberty? Liberty is the power to do what you ought to do. The government subsidizes abortion providers, and then they turn around and fine and maybe even jail 11-year old children who rescue baby birds.

My previous post on bird rescues is here.

11 thoughts on “Child faces $535 fine and jail time for rescuing baby bird”

She’ll get an unconditional discharge and no conviction entered on her record. Not sure if they can waive the fine though. Even with the best legal system, these things happen once they are reported. The idiot with the badge had a measure of discretion, should have realized what was going on and declined to pursue charges.

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At least they reversed it and sent them an apology. :-/

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jerry says:

08/02/2011 at 6:41 PM

while that is true, I wonder what would have happened without the media scrutiny…my bet is on jail time;-)

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Oh, for cryin’ out loud!!! This just makes me want to stop paying taxes altogether. Good thing they stopped this before an underground illeagle woodpecker trade got started. Who knows how many endangered woodpeckers might be available on the black market even as I’m writing this?!?

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IMHO our first step towards balancing the federal budget should be the elimination of one position at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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Stupidity grows through every badge!!!!!

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Can I rent the girl’s cat to take care of the 40 or 50 huge crows that wake me up at 4:40 a.m, every day, right on cue?

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Wow. I live in Fredericksburg, and I never heard about this.

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Couple of things – they wouldn’t fine/jail the 11 year old – it would be the mother in this case that would be the recipient. Now unfortunately there is a reason we have to have laws like this – too many people don’t use common sense and kill/capture these animals (where I was from I had a neighbor that would shoot woodpeckers since they would wake him up in the morning) so your last claim is a bit riduculous – if we all lived a perfect life in a perfect world, i.e., no one like my old neighbor, then we wouldn’t need laws like this. But as someone pointed out earlier, the officer has discretion – this family actually called and reported what happened – they obviously were not violating what I believe to be the intent of the law…I personally think the issuing officer should be reprimanded or fired as she obviously doesn’t have the mental capacity to know when she should be doing her job…and she obviously has too much time on her hands.

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