A pair of nesting Red-tailed Hawks were killed on Wednesday, March 29, according to an article by Kevin Spear in the Orlando Sentinel. The birds had attacked guests at the Villas of Grand Cypress Golf Resort in Orange County, Florida, and in one case caused injury.
I first learned of the killings in a post Patricia Rossi forwarded to Bird Chat today. I’m including the entire article because I don’t have a link for the original.
April 5, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
written by Shelley Bluejay Pierce
freelance writer from Bozeman, MontanaORANGE COUNTY, FLORIDA
A peaceful day golfing in Florida brought humans face to face with two Red Shouldered Hawks defending their nesting area. In Orange County Florida, this past week brought human-wildlife conflict to a head that left the two hawks dead and federal wildlife agents in turmoil over how the issue was handled.
After more than a dozen human attacks, the red shouldered hawks were killed by shotgun blasts Wednesday morning at the Villas of Grand Cypress Golf Resort. The resort had contacted the local office of USDA Wildlife Division and asked officials to aid them in removing the birds. The conflict ended with the hawks being shot and the local USDA Wildlife officials being questioned by an angry public and numerous animal rights agencies as to why this decision was made.
Bernice Constantin, State Director for USDA Wildlife Services in Gainesville has been investigating the event and voiced regret at the incident. “Our agency maintains a primary goal in these cases. Protecting and ensuring human safety is our top priority. The hawks were killed due to their violent attacks upon the locals. I was in contact with the agents in our office and allowed the biologists to make a determination based upon our issued permits. The understanding of all that the permits allowed for us to do became the basis for some misunderstanding. We believed that a separate permit was needed for relocating the hawks or for other measures of control. Our error in interpreting the wording on these permits is now a primary focus for this office and I am doing my best to move forward in educating all agents to better understand permit regulations and allowances. However, I stand behind the primary goal of our agents … human safety first.”
Red Shouldered Hawks and other wildlife have been suffering loss of habitat due to the massive expansion in this area of Florida where conflicts with humans have been steadily increasing. During the breeding and nesting season, some birds of prey can become very defensive of their nesting grounds and are sometimes driven to attack humans. However, animal protection groups are outraged at the decisions made to shoot the nesting hawks. Hawk Watch International, Audubon and other national agencies are all demanding accountability on the part of Constanin’s office. Many have voiced questions regarding why other measures of control for these hawks in Florida was not attempted prior to shooting them. The result of the actions taken by wildlife agents in Florida will have long reaching consequences to a nation wide concern of how best to deal with such circumstances in the future. Human-wildlife conflicts are escalating due to the human occupation of once open, wild lands that allowed for species progression without human interference.
Bernice Constantin also stated, “My office will be contacting our State USDA Representatives to request in-depth training for all officials responsible for managing these conflicts. Hopefully, our future conferences will offer detailed classes exploring the full scope of these permitting rules. Our agents need to completely understand all their options before they confront similar situations involving these conflicts between humans and wildlife. However, I firmly believe in this case, the human safety issue demanded our immediate attention and that was how the agents from our office proceeded.”
Further debate will be required from all sides of this issue. Wildlife habitat is being consumed at an alarming rate world wide. Conflicts between humans and wildlife will continue, requiring cooperation between federal, state and local agencies. The environmental and animal rights organizations demand attention be paid also to the needs of the wildlife involved. This is a point of conflict requiring good communication and cooperation on all parts in order to find solutions.
The post included an e-mail address for people who want to complain: APHIS.Web@aphis.usda.gov.
This incident has left me furious and sick at heart. Bernice Constantin’s remarks strike me as self-serving and question begging. If one says “human safety” enough times (in Constantin’s case, no fewer than three) we might just forget that the humans involved could have managed the situation so that neither they nor the hawks were harmed. The “violent attacks upon the locals” weren’t those of Hitchcockian birds run amok, cornering children in schoolyards or pecking people to death in their homes—they were those of two hawks defending a nest with eggs at a golf resort. In my letter e-mailed to the address given above, I asked whether it had occurred to anyone to make part of the resort off limits during the nesting period. Would that have been such an impossible leap of imagination—or of morality?
Concerning the question of permits, why, if they thought they needed a separate permit for relocation of the birds, did they not get one? And why, if there was any question about the wording of the permits, did they not act conservatively rather than send a technician to blast the pair with a shotgun?
Chuck’s comment was, “A pity they didn’t send Cheney.”