A 17-year-old has been charged with only a misdemeanor after killing a bald eagle Tuesday, February 21st, in the Woodland Oaks neighborhood of Houston. A witness, after finding the dead eagle, said three males had been standing near the base of a tree where American bald eagles had nested for a few years. There is at least one small fledgling eagle in the nest and now only one parent to care for it.
The accused killer, Orlando David Delgado, returned to pull a feather from the eagle's body before authorities arrived. Delgado admitted that he shot the eagle with a high-powered Gamo pellet rifle and said that, because the initial shot didn't kill the bird, he shot it several more times.
Because Delgado is 17, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined to prosecute. But Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden H.R. Volschenk said Delgado would be charged with the class A misdemeanor of hunting without a landowner's consent.
I urge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to prosecute Orlando David Delgado as an adult, and to the fullest extent that any person in America would be prosecuted for killing a bald eagle. If a person can repeatedly shoot a gun to kill a federally protected animal, for no reason other than sport, then he can also face the full consequences. If he cannot be tried as an adult, then he and his parents should be held fully accountable, and more than just a slap on the wrist, for the killing of an animal that was beloved by the community where it nested.
