Update, May 1: An anonymous supporter, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, along with the generous support of individual donors including Lourdes Rivas & Patti Ballaz, have increased the reward to $20,000 for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for this horrific pelican attack.
Anyone with information that might lead to the arrest and conviction of the suspect or suspects should contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) at 310-328-1516.
You can make a donation to support the care of this animal by clicking on the pelican image to the right. Mail-in donations can be sent to:
International Bird Rescue
P.O. Box 2171
Long Beach CA 90801
You can also make a donation by phone. Simply call us at 510-289-1472 and we’ll handle your gift right away.
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This Brown Pelican with a severe pouch laceration injury was found and captured last week at 5400 Ocean Blvd in Long Beach before transfer to our Los Angeles center. The laceration runs all the way around the pouch, and as a result the pelican was unable to self-feed.
Our center team has placed temporary staples in the pouch to allow the bird to self-feed and stabilize. The bird is currently living in our small aviary awaiting surgery to repair the pouch.
Jay Holcomb, the rescue organization’s director, said fishermen sometimes injure birds because they are falsely seen as competition.
“Pelicans are of no threat to anyone, yet they continue to be mutilated and even killed by people who see them as competition for fish,” Holcomb said in a statement. “The truth is a pelican’s diet is mostly anchovies and sardines – fish that are used as bait by people who fish for sport.”
Reward offered for arrest of pelican abuser, Orange County Register, April 21, 2014
Anyone with information that might lead to the arrest and conviction of person responsible for the mutilation of this bird should contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) at 310-328-1516. We’ll keep you posted on this bird’s condition.
Read the full press release on this incident here.
Further reading:
Terrible! Just terrible! Obviously a deliberate act of cruelty if not torture as the poor animal would die of starvation. Am willing to partner with you or any one else in offering a reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction….am making a donation as well. Simply horrible.
We have had a lot of pelican wing injuries here in North Carolina and South Carolina. I stayed at a beach front resort last month that had multiple thin wire cables stretched from the top of the building to the ground. I watched as a flock if pelicans flew by several times getting closer and closer to the wire. Has anyone looked into this as a cause if these injuries. I assume the hotel has it there to keep birds away from balconies.
I can’t believe the lower depths of humanity’s cruelty. This is unbelievable. I hope they can repair the pouch and place this bird in a good sanctuary.
Who’s to say this was done by someone. A knife like object? Pretty sure birds fly into things on occasion.
@grental Judging from the wound this wasn’t an accident: The bird’s pouch was clearly slit wide open with some sort of sharp object. We do agree that some birds fly into objects that cause harm. Clearly this isn’t one of those cases.
It was obviously deliberate. No accident could cause that severe of an injury. I hope they find whoever did this to this beautiful animal. There was a similar incident where a snapping turtle was find after being beaten with a golf club, crushing some of it’s shell. Sadly,as far as I know, no one was found or charged for the crime.