Rancher Jim Maitland waded through chest-high waters
in mid-November on a rescue mission, but not to save a calf. The
creature struggling in a southwestern Oregon river was a young
golden eagle that had been shot. After Maitland used a potato sack
to rescue the raptor from a riverbank, it thanked him by gouging
his hand with a talon. “It was worth it,” Maitland said afterward.
“It’s a beautiful bird.”
While Maitland said he
never considered the possibility that a fellow rancher shot the
bird, Dan Deuel of Free Flight Rehabilitation Center in Bandon,
Ore., which now houses the disabled eagle, thinks a rancher is
guilty. Sheep ranchers especially, he says, blame eagles for
preying on their livestock. Deuel says many people in the area
oppose Free Flight’s efforts to return birds of prey to the sky;
some have even sent death threats to the
center.
“There’s a lot of manhood being carried
around on gunracks around here,” said
Deuel.
Meanwhile, Maitland, who collects guns and
promotes gun shows, says he’s glad he helped the injured eaglet,
although he hopes he doesn’t have to rescue many more. “I don’t
want to make a habit of it,” he said. “Those birds are big.”
*Jenny
Emery
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Of raptors and rifles.
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