The New York Observer, March 16, 1998
Fowl Play While in Custody?
The Case of the Peregrine Falcon
by Elizabeth Hess
The case began on thc afternoon of Feb. 10, just outside the perimeter of the Westin hotel's wide blue awning, when Allen Davison heard a strange sound. "It was a loud thump," said the hotel's burly doorman, who spends eight hours a day flaging down cabs, opening doors and giving directions to confused tourists. "I looked over my shoulder, and there was a large bird standing up on the sidewalk, staring right at me. It was a beautitul gray-and-black bird with some yellow on its face. I knew something was wrong because it wasn't moving."
Mr. Davison has pet goldfish, but no experience with falcons. Nevertheless, he quickly did the right thing. "I put a milk crate over the bird to protect it from dogs passing by, and I called Animal Rescue."
The Center for Animal Care and Control Inc., the controversial municipal shelter program that Mayor Rudy Giuliani created three years ago to handle the city's strays and other rogue animals, picked up the bird in less than hour. Two days later, it was dead. And this wasn't just any bird. It was a peregrine falcon, which is a Federally protected endangered species.
What happened to the bird between the thne Mr. Davison found it and its death is something of a mystery. Incontrovertible, however, are both Federal and state laws requiring any person who finds an endangered species to take immediate action to protect the animal; failure to do so can lead to a $25,000 fine and/or up to six months in jail. At the very least, the C.A.C.C. was obligated to contact the Department of Environmental Conservation, the state agency charged with protecting wildlife, within 24 hours of taking the falcon. No one did. Now the peregrine's death is under investigation.
"We're teaming up with the D.E.C. to look at the cause of death, the people who may have come in contact with the bird be fore it [died] and the time involved," said special agent Sam Librandi of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the branch of the Department of the Interior that handles endangered and threatened species inquiries.
A PEREGRINE'S PROGRESS
Picked up at the Westin Central Park South (formally the Ritz-Carlton), at approximately 4:30 P.M., the peregrine was taken to the C.A.C .C. shelter on East 110th Street. Upon arrival there, every animal admitted is given an "intake card," which travels with it throughout the system. According to a staff member, "any medical treatment the animals receive, or comments about their condition or history, must be written on this card."
A copy of the falcon's intake card, obtained by The Observer, indicates that the bird arrived at the shelter at 7:30 P.M., which means that it spent three hours riding aroundManhattan in a windowless shelter van; the driver was presumably stopping to pick up other animals. The falcon, which the card inaccurately described as a "hawk," was listed in "semi-responsive" condition. The bird, the card stated, was "incapable of flight for reasons unknown." On the back of the card, another note said, "Possible poison trom prey animal," suggesting that the falcon might have ingested a toxic pigeon-a whole other bird problem in New York City.
"It's rare that anyone can identify these birds," said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., reached at the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic in White Plains, N.Y. The noted falconer and attorney was not the least surprised that the shelter thought it had a hawk on its hands. Mr. Kennedy, who is licensed to rehabilitate falcons, recalled a recent incident when he went to pick up a wounded falcon. "When I got there, the people brought me into their barn to see a chicken." However, had the staff bothered to investigate the numbers printed on bands around each of the peregrine's legs -- the numbers were noted on its card -- the C.A.C.C. would have quickly discovered it had an endangered species in its keep.
"We get lots of calls on falcons," said Peter Nye, the head of the D.E.C.'s endangered species unit. "It's our job to monitor the population and recover all the dead or wounded." There are currently 15 pairs -- peregrines mate for life -- in New York City, which has the highest concentration of facons in the world. Cliff-nesters, the birds happily roost on skyscrapers and bridges. They also Iike New York because of its ample food supply of pigeons. Last year, New York's peregrilles gave birth to 34 fledglings. (The C.A.C.C.'s falcon was born in Manhattan two years ago.)
"The birds are generally doing really well." said Dr. Heinz Meng, an internationally recognized ornithologist who in 1971 bred the first falcons in captivity to be succcssfully released into the wild. "We don't even breed them and release them anymore because the birds have been completely resuscitated."
Given the number of peregrines dive-bombing their hapless prey at 200 m.p.h., it's surprising that more of them don't crash into Manhattan buildings and end up in the custody of the C.A.C.C.
Each year, more than 65,000 animals pass through the city shelter, which has an annual budget of more than $6 million, doled out by the Department of Health. The vast majority of those animals are euthanized after48 hours. While most are dogs and cats, so-called "exotics" are not unknown to New York shelter workers: monkeys, squirrels, snakes, frogs, iguanas, raccoons, ferrets and pot-bellied pigs all turn up. Until last November, a special rescue coordinator, Chris Shetchik, was employed to get these animals out of the shelter and into appropriate sanctuaries. But Ms. Shetchik left, and her position is still open. "No falcon would have been just sitting around for two days had Chris still been in place," a source at the shelter's kennel commented.
"Wildlite always falls through cracks because there's no owner involved," said Donna Tracy, founder and executive director of the Hudson Valley Raptor Center, a hospital and sanctuary for raptors. "Just riding aroundfor three hours in a van and ending up in a cage for a night can be enough to push a bird over the edge.
Say the bird bonked its head on the Westin, it would have required "immediate X-rays, treatment tor shock and fluids," said Mr. Nye. Dr. Meng noted that if poisoning is suspected, "You have to get something down its esophagus right away. We usually use Coke, but make sure it's flat. Some birds will be good as new the next moming." Pigeons, much to the dismay of their advocates, are routinely poisoned in the city with a chemical called Avitol.
On the moming of Feb. 11, the peregrine was alive and marked on its intake card as "QAR" -- quiet, alert and responsive -- but "still incapable of flight." By 4:30 that afternoon, the patient was "weakly ambulatory." At that point, the bird had been in the. C.A.C.C. 's custody for about 24 hours.
Faith Elliott, spokesman for the shelter, told The Observer that no one alerted the D.E.C. on Feb. 10 because "a D.E.C. agent was already scheduled to come on the 11 th to look at some finches. Yet according to the C.A.C.C., that agent, John Fitzpatrick, showed up on Feb. 12. A shelter source said that when Mr. Fitzpatnck saw the sick falcon, he scooped it up and rushed it to the Animal Medical Center, a private hospital that is well known as New York's E.R. for animals. (Mr. Fitzpatrick would not discuss the case, pending the investigation.)
Dr. Guy Pidgeon, president and chief executive of the Animal Medical Center, told The Observer that "the bird was weakened and minimally responsive when it arrived. We gave it glucose by tube and made an attempt to catheterize the bird, but it died within minutes." Dr. Pidgeon also said that earlier in the afternoon, Dr. Susan Kopp, chief veterinarian at the C.A.C.C., "informed us the bird was hydrated [with an I.V.] at the shelter and seemed to be doing fine."
Then Mr. Fitzpatrick showed up, decided that the bird was not fine at all and hustled it over to the Animal Medical Center.
'NEW INFORMATION' COMES TO LIGHT
Was the falcon hydrated at the C.A.C.C.? Ms. Elliott initially said that "Dr. Kopp informed me that the bird was not hydrated." A few days later, Ms. Elliott returned a call, saying she had been given new information indicating that a knowledgeable vet technician had hydrated the bird intravenously.
Was the falcon at the shelter for one day or two? On Feb. 27, the New York Post ran a piece on the falcon. A reporter was told that the bird had been in the C.A.C.C.'s custody for less than 24 hours. But the Post reporter noticed that the falcon arrived at the Animal Medical Center on Feb. 12, indicating that the bird was in the shelter for two days betore it was rushed to the hospital.
Again, Ms. Elliott explained, "new information from the executive director indicated that the bird was there two days."
Did the C.A.C.C. make a real effort to care tor this bird? Repeated calls to newly appointed executive director Marilyn Haggerty-Blohm, Dr. Kopp and staff members at the shelter who might have seen or treated the peregrine, were unanswered.
"It doesn't matter whether it was a hawk or a peregrine falcon," said City Council member Kathryn Freed, one of the C.A.C.C.'s most vocal critics. "The bird should have had immediate medical assistance. Why did they just throw it in a cage and let it die?" Last June, Ms. Freed presided over her second public hearing concerning myriad shelter complaints -- mismanagement, inhumane facilities, low spay and neuter rates, lack of expertise. "The C.A.C.C. is the Mayor's creation. You would think he'd want to clean it up and bring in an expert to solve problems."
Ms. Haggerty-Blohm, plucked from the Mayor's Office of Operations, has experience in waste management and diplomat parking issues.
The body ot the peregrine is currently with Ward Stone, an Albany-based wildlife pathologist employed by the D.E.C. Dr. Stone was reluctant to speak with the press. When The Observer asked him what condition the bird was in when he received it, he said, "Dead." After prodding, he revealed that the peregrine was "in good flesh, dehydrated and had no disease. There was minor trauma, nothing terminal. No obvious poison in the gizzard and no food in its intestinal track. Not even one seed," said the disappointed pathologist. "That makes the chemistry [work] more difficult." Dr. Stone has not ruled out any possibilities. "We're still looking at the tissue," he said. Wrapping up, the case af the peregrine falcon is a few weeks away.
Fowl Play While in Custody?
The Case of the Peregrine Falcon
by Elizabeth Hess
The case began on thc afternoon of Feb. 10, just outside the perimeter of the Westin hotel's wide blue awning, when Allen Davison heard a strange sound. "It was a loud thump," said the hotel's burly doorman, who spends eight hours a day flaging down cabs, opening doors and giving directions to confused tourists. "I looked over my shoulder, and there was a large bird standing up on the sidewalk, staring right at me. It was a beautitul gray-and-black bird with some yellow on its face. I knew something was wrong because it wasn't moving."
Mr. Davison has pet goldfish, but no experience with falcons. Nevertheless, he quickly did the right thing. "I put a milk crate over the bird to protect it from dogs passing by, and I called Animal Rescue."
The Center for Animal Care and Control Inc., the controversial municipal shelter program that Mayor Rudy Giuliani created three years ago to handle the city's strays and other rogue animals, picked up the bird in less than hour. Two days later, it was dead. And this wasn't just any bird. It was a peregrine falcon, which is a Federally protected endangered species.
What happened to the bird between the thne Mr. Davison found it and its death is something of a mystery. Incontrovertible, however, are both Federal and state laws requiring any person who finds an endangered species to take immediate action to protect the animal; failure to do so can lead to a $25,000 fine and/or up to six months in jail. At the very least, the C.A.C.C. was obligated to contact the Department of Environmental Conservation, the state agency charged with protecting wildlife, within 24 hours of taking the falcon. No one did. Now the peregrine's death is under investigation.
"We're teaming up with the D.E.C. to look at the cause of death, the people who may have come in contact with the bird be fore it [died] and the time involved," said special agent Sam Librandi of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the branch of the Department of the Interior that handles endangered and threatened species inquiries.
A PEREGRINE'S PROGRESS
Picked up at the Westin Central Park South (formally the Ritz-Carlton), at approximately 4:30 P.M., the peregrine was taken to the C.A.C .C. shelter on East 110th Street. Upon arrival there, every animal admitted is given an "intake card," which travels with it throughout the system. According to a staff member, "any medical treatment the animals receive, or comments about their condition or history, must be written on this card."
A copy of the falcon's intake card, obtained by The Observer, indicates that the bird arrived at the shelter at 7:30 P.M., which means that it spent three hours riding aroundManhattan in a windowless shelter van; the driver was presumably stopping to pick up other animals. The falcon, which the card inaccurately described as a "hawk," was listed in "semi-responsive" condition. The bird, the card stated, was "incapable of flight for reasons unknown." On the back of the card, another note said, "Possible poison trom prey animal," suggesting that the falcon might have ingested a toxic pigeon-a whole other bird problem in New York City.
"It's rare that anyone can identify these birds," said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., reached at the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic in White Plains, N.Y. The noted falconer and attorney was not the least surprised that the shelter thought it had a hawk on its hands. Mr. Kennedy, who is licensed to rehabilitate falcons, recalled a recent incident when he went to pick up a wounded falcon. "When I got there, the people brought me into their barn to see a chicken." However, had the staff bothered to investigate the numbers printed on bands around each of the peregrine's legs -- the numbers were noted on its card -- the C.A.C.C. would have quickly discovered it had an endangered species in its keep.
"We get lots of calls on falcons," said Peter Nye, the head of the D.E.C.'s endangered species unit. "It's our job to monitor the population and recover all the dead or wounded." There are currently 15 pairs -- peregrines mate for life -- in New York City, which has the highest concentration of facons in the world. Cliff-nesters, the birds happily roost on skyscrapers and bridges. They also Iike New York because of its ample food supply of pigeons. Last year, New York's peregrilles gave birth to 34 fledglings. (The C.A.C.C.'s falcon was born in Manhattan two years ago.)
"The birds are generally doing really well." said Dr. Heinz Meng, an internationally recognized ornithologist who in 1971 bred the first falcons in captivity to be succcssfully released into the wild. "We don't even breed them and release them anymore because the birds have been completely resuscitated."
Given the number of peregrines dive-bombing their hapless prey at 200 m.p.h., it's surprising that more of them don't crash into Manhattan buildings and end up in the custody of the C.A.C.C.
Each year, more than 65,000 animals pass through the city shelter, which has an annual budget of more than $6 million, doled out by the Department of Health. The vast majority of those animals are euthanized after48 hours. While most are dogs and cats, so-called "exotics" are not unknown to New York shelter workers: monkeys, squirrels, snakes, frogs, iguanas, raccoons, ferrets and pot-bellied pigs all turn up. Until last November, a special rescue coordinator, Chris Shetchik, was employed to get these animals out of the shelter and into appropriate sanctuaries. But Ms. Shetchik left, and her position is still open. "No falcon would have been just sitting around for two days had Chris still been in place," a source at the shelter's kennel commented.
"Wildlite always falls through cracks because there's no owner involved," said Donna Tracy, founder and executive director of the Hudson Valley Raptor Center, a hospital and sanctuary for raptors. "Just riding aroundfor three hours in a van and ending up in a cage for a night can be enough to push a bird over the edge.
Say the bird bonked its head on the Westin, it would have required "immediate X-rays, treatment tor shock and fluids," said Mr. Nye. Dr. Meng noted that if poisoning is suspected, "You have to get something down its esophagus right away. We usually use Coke, but make sure it's flat. Some birds will be good as new the next moming." Pigeons, much to the dismay of their advocates, are routinely poisoned in the city with a chemical called Avitol.
On the moming of Feb. 11, the peregrine was alive and marked on its intake card as "QAR" -- quiet, alert and responsive -- but "still incapable of flight." By 4:30 that afternoon, the patient was "weakly ambulatory." At that point, the bird had been in the. C.A.C.C. 's custody for about 24 hours.
Faith Elliott, spokesman for the shelter, told The Observer that no one alerted the D.E.C. on Feb. 10 because "a D.E.C. agent was already scheduled to come on the 11 th to look at some finches. Yet according to the C.A.C.C., that agent, John Fitzpatrick, showed up on Feb. 12. A shelter source said that when Mr. Fitzpatnck saw the sick falcon, he scooped it up and rushed it to the Animal Medical Center, a private hospital that is well known as New York's E.R. for animals. (Mr. Fitzpatrick would not discuss the case, pending the investigation.)
Dr. Guy Pidgeon, president and chief executive of the Animal Medical Center, told The Observer that "the bird was weakened and minimally responsive when it arrived. We gave it glucose by tube and made an attempt to catheterize the bird, but it died within minutes." Dr. Pidgeon also said that earlier in the afternoon, Dr. Susan Kopp, chief veterinarian at the C.A.C.C., "informed us the bird was hydrated [with an I.V.] at the shelter and seemed to be doing fine."
Then Mr. Fitzpatrick showed up, decided that the bird was not fine at all and hustled it over to the Animal Medical Center.
'NEW INFORMATION' COMES TO LIGHT
Was the falcon hydrated at the C.A.C.C.? Ms. Elliott initially said that "Dr. Kopp informed me that the bird was not hydrated." A few days later, Ms. Elliott returned a call, saying she had been given new information indicating that a knowledgeable vet technician had hydrated the bird intravenously.
Was the falcon at the shelter for one day or two? On Feb. 27, the New York Post ran a piece on the falcon. A reporter was told that the bird had been in the C.A.C.C.'s custody for less than 24 hours. But the Post reporter noticed that the falcon arrived at the Animal Medical Center on Feb. 12, indicating that the bird was in the shelter for two days betore it was rushed to the hospital.
Again, Ms. Elliott explained, "new information from the executive director indicated that the bird was there two days."
Did the C.A.C.C. make a real effort to care tor this bird? Repeated calls to newly appointed executive director Marilyn Haggerty-Blohm, Dr. Kopp and staff members at the shelter who might have seen or treated the peregrine, were unanswered.
"It doesn't matter whether it was a hawk or a peregrine falcon," said City Council member Kathryn Freed, one of the C.A.C.C.'s most vocal critics. "The bird should have had immediate medical assistance. Why did they just throw it in a cage and let it die?" Last June, Ms. Freed presided over her second public hearing concerning myriad shelter complaints -- mismanagement, inhumane facilities, low spay and neuter rates, lack of expertise. "The C.A.C.C. is the Mayor's creation. You would think he'd want to clean it up and bring in an expert to solve problems."
Ms. Haggerty-Blohm, plucked from the Mayor's Office of Operations, has experience in waste management and diplomat parking issues.
The body ot the peregrine is currently with Ward Stone, an Albany-based wildlife pathologist employed by the D.E.C. Dr. Stone was reluctant to speak with the press. When The Observer asked him what condition the bird was in when he received it, he said, "Dead." After prodding, he revealed that the peregrine was "in good flesh, dehydrated and had no disease. There was minor trauma, nothing terminal. No obvious poison in the gizzard and no food in its intestinal track. Not even one seed," said the disappointed pathologist. "That makes the chemistry [work] more difficult." Dr. Stone has not ruled out any possibilities. "We're still looking at the tissue," he said. Wrapping up, the case af the peregrine falcon is a few weeks away.
