Bird Brained Federal Hypocrisy

As seen on Wombat-socho's "Live at Five: 06.06.14." Obama administration gives wind farms a 30 year kill permit for protected birds, while prosecuting individuals for minor infractions.

Just last month, US Fish and Wildlife cited 26-year- old tree trimmer Ernesto Pulido for violating the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act for disturbing a nest of herons. Pulido was hired by the U.S. Postal Service to rid their parking lot in Oakland, Calif. of the birds and the droppings they left behind.

"It's a violation of federal law," said conservationist Lisa Owens Viani. "Nesting birds (herons) are protected under federal law."

Viani arrived at the scene May 3 to find several adult herons circling the trees and five baby herons hiding under a postal truck. She took them to a wildlife rehabilitation center for blood work, fluids and feeding.

Pulido, who grew up in rural Mexico, visited the birds and voluntarily paid for their rehabilitation costs. Nevertheless, wildlife officials threatened to prosecute and fine him. On Thursday they relented, dropping the charges.

A couple of different points here.  First of all, did they check Pulido's immigration status?  If he's anything like the tree trimmers who worked for the contractor who did our tree's he's not likely to be legal. Certainly, messing with protected species is a deportable offense.

Second, a strictly rhetorical question; why aren't they going after the Post Master (or Mistress, I don't want to be accused of sexism) for this offense?  It was the Post Office who clearly decided they wanted the birds gone from their grounds, Pulido was simply the rather ignorant executor of Post Office policies.

Next, a citizen (relatively for sure) catches even more grief, not for interfering with live birds, but for molesting dead ones:

Avid New York City birdwatcher Lincoln Karim's experience was even worse. Karim knows the law: To touch a protected bird-- even a dead one-- you need a permit. But Karim found a dead red-tailed hawk in Central Park on a Sunday. He called animal control to pick up the carcass. When no one responded, he put the bird in a plastic bag, took it home and kept it in the refrigerator so it would not get eaten by predators.

"If I left it on that lawn, it was going to be picked up and taken up by a raccoon or a dog or something," he said. Suspecting the bird had been poisoned, Karim turned it in Monday morning for an autopsy.

"When I handed it over, they arrested me," he said. "It's not nice getting handcuffed -- especially when you know deep inside you're not a criminal.” Karim was charged with illegal possession of a raptor. Though his charges were eventually dismissed, marine biologist Black wasn't so lucky. The U.S. Attorney's Office, on behalf of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, gave Black three years probation and fined her $12,000 for feeding a whale in Monterey Bay.

Possessing even the smallest part of a protected species (and soon, all non-human species may be protected) is illegal.  Even a Secretary of the Smithsonian has fell afoul (or is that afowl) of this law by possessing and displaying Indian Native American artifacts made with feathers of protected species.

But to really go industrial about harming protected species, all you need is the excuse of saving the world from global warming, and a get out of jail free card from the Obama administration:

Under a new Obama administration policy, wind farm operators are getting 30-year permits to kill protected species.
The new renewable energy policy gives wind farm operators 30-year permits - up from the current 5 years - to kill a specific number of protected species without threat of prosecution.
. . .
"Now they've got the 30-year eagle permit get-out-of-jail-free card," said Johns. "Nobody else is getting that. Nobody else is allowed to go out and kill eagles like this and get away with it. In California alone, wind farms out there are estimated to have killed over 3,000 golden eagles. And there hasn’t been a single prosecution out there for that.''

The wind industry says it needs the permits to obtain financing and avoid prosecution. They claim some fatalities are inevitable, but hope to mitigate the damage through location and design. In addition, if the world ever hopes to get off fossil fuels, they say wind is an important, clean alternative.
. . .
"President Obama's climate plan would initiate an open-ended avian holocaust the likes we have never seen before," wrote James Taylor, managing editor of Environment and Climate News.

Linked at The DaleyGator in "Your Weekend Link-a-round."