Alberta Fish and Wildlife report the shooting of a bald eagle in our region.
The provincial agency reported they discovered the remains of a juvenile bald eagle left to waste.
A concerned resident notified officer Alex Dayman of the incident in the Tower Road area on Oct. 29, 2019.
“The discovery was made on Tuesday by a member of the public. They got in touch with me, [so] I went out to Tower Road and reviewed the scene.”
Dayman said the resident first noticed the bird scavenging the grounds for food on Saturday, Oct. 26.
“The eagle was found just after kilometre marker #8 along Tower Road. There had been a carcass dumped from a legal hunt, and the eagle had been feeding on it. [The resident] took photos of it on the weekend.”
He added there were no tracks in the snow around where he spotted the bird.
The bald eagle is a protected species in Alberta and there is no hunting season for it.
This followed a similar report from Wetaskiwin, Alta., on Oct. 20, 2019.
However, Officer Alex Dayman said the agency doesn’t believe there is a connection to the killings.
The maximum penalty for killing one of the birds is a $100,000 fine or possibly two years in jail.
The agency asks witnesses or anyone with information to contact Report-A-Poacher at 1-800-642-3800.
This article includes excerpts from the Canadian Press.
