Subject: Beluga whales at Shedd/Trapping of hawks

From: [email-masked] (Dr. Samuel Conway)
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 21:28:37 GMT

Please forgive me if this is perceived as a flame, because I do not
intend it to be.  I should think that the Shedd Aquarium, which has
a magnificent marine mammal presentation which shows the animals only
in the most respectful fashion (unlike Sea World et al *shudder*), 
and which has a very highly-regarded research and rescue/recovery
program, might know a tiny bit more than an armchair ecologist whose
sole knowledge of the tragic event with the belugas comes from what
was reported in the papers, and by some of the more reactionary 
environmental groups.

Now, there's a Nate Hawthorne sentence for you.  But it is true.  The people
who are screaming so loudly about the Shedd's "exploitation" of their
residents have likely not ever seen the presentations.  I have, and they
are not in the slightest bit exploitative.  To the contrary, they are very
educational and particularly inspiring.  I was tremendously impressed.  The
transport of the whales to Shedd was not to make them some "zoo attraction".
Their deaths, too, were entirely unforseen.  They were given a medication
for a rampant parasitic infection, and suffered an adverse reaction.  The
same medication had been given to other belugas without problem in the past.
Blame God, if you will, for not giving these whales little MedicAlert tags.

On the topic of not removing birds from the wild "for any reason", please
excuse me if I fall off my chair laughing for a moment.

There, now that that's out of the way, I'd like to ask what you think of
the work I did for four years, driving halfway across the state of Vermont
and spending hours chasing a wounded broadwing across a field.  I took 
such birds and their bloody, dangling wings back to a dreadful little 
building and put nasty bandages all around them and kept them in *gasp*
TINY CRAMPED CAGES for weeks, and then cruelly released them!

Honestly, I don't think any of them are complaining today.

A closing note, to those who saw fit to flame Steve, my young falconer 
friend.  Steve finally did catch a hawk -- a process for which he has
had very careful and intensive training -- and in such a pursuit, spent
nearly a week chasing a redtail with an obviously wounded leg.  He finally
managed to catch it, and transported it to a wildlife rehabilitation
center.  Maybe the leg can be saved, or maybe it can't.  So whether the bird
is released back into the wild or onto a controlled preserve for monitoring,
it still has a chance of going free.  So Steve has removed one from the wild,
and subsequently aided in the return of another to the wild.  No net gain,
no net loss.

And again, when the wounded hawk takes off again, I don't think it will be
complaining.

----
Dr. Samuel Conway         *  "If the guest isn't singing, 'Oh What a Beautiful
Roving chemist, wildlife  *  Morning' I don't immediately think, 'Oh, there's
rehabilitator, and all-   *  another one snuffed it in the night!'  Another
around nice guy!          *  name in the Fawlty Towers book of Remembrance.
[email-masked]  *  I mean, this is a hotel, not the Burma Railway!"