The punishments for shooting BALD EAGLES are pretty severe. Fines can be hefty, and even imprisonment is a possibility. Right at $12,000.00 is the “civil recovery value” per bird, and if the “Feds” become involved, restitution fees can soar even higher!
Since we have begun to see more bald eagles alive and well recently, they no longer are covered under the “Endangered Species Act,” but the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act both have been in effect for years and years going way back. And they make it illegal to hold and possess anything, and I mean any little thing, from any eagle!
And the chances of getting caught become higher and higher as locals become aware of problems in their areas and put “Crime Stoppers” into action and as TPWD Game Thief Identification operations gain speed! From what I read, incentives of $1,000.00 or more are often offered for tips that lead to arrests. And these fines are not just for punishing shooters or trappers. They also apply to vandals, poisoners, torturers, random acts of delinquency, nest robbers, and other forms of animal abuse.
Take a look at the following example of punishment that is not even of the severest type. Federal Court, 2020 in Bay City, Texas, a farmer of the area had to forfeit almost $12,000.00 in restitution fines and also had to be “on probation” for one year after a 2018 offense of killing a bald eagle after he plead guilty to scattering poisoned grain in his fields to intentionally kill birds that he thought had been ruining his crops—the later examinations and analyses proved that the cause of deaths of birds in that field had been directly from the poison the man had intentionally placed where the birds had eaten.
And all cases do not even have an excuse as semireasonable as the poisoning case. A TPWD investigation found that a 17-years-old young man was arrested for killing a bald eagle (one of a nesting pair) with a powerful pellet gun as the bird nested in a tree, and evidently the dead eagle was not by itself when it was shot! It seems that another eagle (dead eagle’s mate?) came to the nest to roost after the shooting. Seeking to find more information, foresters in that area climbed the tree to see if any babies might be there, and, sure enough, they found an eaglet (dehydrated and very hungry) about a month and one-half old—it was taken to a wildlife center and then to a rehabilitation center for care.
Now, all eagle deaths are certainly not the results of bad deeds. Some are the process of “nature,” and some are accidental, as in cases of birds being tangled in fishing lines, hurt in storms, and killed by “natural” predators.
But…..if you ever see a majestic eagle of any type, and especially a BALD EAGLE, with its giant 6-feetacross nest that weighs a couple hundred pounds or more, and you get to see its spread 6-feet-plus wingspan, and you see (without being gouged) its finger-length talons and its curved beak, I don’t see how you could ever want to harm one—not even if it were legal for a trophy!
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