Mother almost fined $535, threatened with year in prison after daughter rescued baby woodpecker

Jonathan Benson
Natural News
August 12, 2011

(NaturalNews) When 11-year-old Skylar Capo from Fredericksburg, Va., recently rescued a baby woodpecker from being eaten by her family’s cat, she had no idea that the compassionate deed would nearly land her mother in jail. According to WUSA 9, a secret agent from the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), after witnessing Skylar and her mother Alison with the bird at a local Lowe’s Home Improvement store, tracked the family down and slapped it with a $535 fine and potential jail time for illegally taking a protected animal species.

Skylar first spotted the woodpecker in the backyard of her father’s home where she had been staying. Observing that the family cat was about to pounce and eat the bird, Skylar immediately ran outside to save it. But because they were unable to find its mother, Skylar and her mom decided to take the bird home and release it back into the wild after a few days.

On the way home, however, the two made a stop at a local Lowe’s Home Improvement store to pick up a few things, and their innocent hospitality was met by the cold, heavy hand of overzealous bureaucracy. Due to the intense heat of the day, Alison and Skylar decided to bring the woodpecker inside the store to keep it from dying, only to be spotted by a secret FWS agent that confronted them and flashed her badge at them.

  • A d v e r t i s e m e n t

The agent nervously explained that it was illegal to take woodpeckers from the wild because they are a protected species under the Federal Migratory Bird Act. Alison responded by explaining her unawareness of this fact, and indicated she and her daughter would release the bird back into the wild once they got back home.

At this point, Alison believed she had done everything necessary to comply with the law, and even took the time to contact FWS to let it know she had released the bird. But the same FWS agent that confronted her and Skylar showed up unannounced at the family’s doorstep about two weeks later with a state trooper, and issued the family a citation. Alison refused it, and was later sent a notice to appear in US District Court, as well issued as a $535 fine.

“I feel harassed, and I feel angry,” said Alison to WUSA 9. Her daughter also expressed concern that doing what they thought was the right thing for the bird almost landed her mother in prison.

Several months later, however, after much inquiry into the matter, the federal agency issued a formal apology for its actions and explained that the charges were supposed to have been dropped. FWS claimed it had made a “clerical error” by failing to both remove the citation from its system, as well as contact the Capos and let them know that they were actually in the clear.

Sources for this story include:

http://wusa9.com/news/article/16106…






 
Print this page.

Comment Rules


8 Responses to “Mother almost fined $535, threatened with year in prison after daughter rescued baby woodpecker”

  1. In the mean time, we have elites, corporations, and other rich people killing our planet with all their polluting, deforestaion, etc.
    We have factory farms torturing animals, as evidenced in the video “meet you meat”, and these people have to bother a little girl whos trying to help an animal. These stupid bastards make me SICK!!!!

  2. Can anyone explain how this FWS agent is helping woodpeckers by harassing people who ARE helping woodpeckers? Typical to form, in a country who turns a blind eye to totalitarian fascist tactics, the government agents are not doing their jobs, they’re just abusing their authority and throwing common sense out the window. And should we hazard a guess how much this faux pas cost the Virginia taxpayers?

  3. I think I’ll go find a woodpecker and kill it in the name of ANTI FASCISM. I love animals but I love freedom even more. If I knew where that STASI degenerate lived I’d place a big ol’ pile of dead random wild life at his front door. The more rare and precious the better.

  4. we should prank these assholes and give them $1337 for annoying the shit out of our lives then take the fines back and shove ‘em straight up their asses.

    • $1337 fines

  5. Sounds like your typical power and control freak with a badge on the loose.

  6. Ok then if i ever see an endangered fws agent half dead on the street i will just leave them alone. Law is the law.lol

  7. “the charges were supposed to have been dropped”

    Supposed?

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes