This story made me smile -- isn't she a beauty?

[CatWoman]

Bald eagle gets new faux beak



BEAUTY the eagle has gone from being peaky to beaky after an operation to save her life.

The bird of prey was slowly starving to death after a poacher shot her upper beak off three years ago.

But thanks to a team of volunteers an ARTIFICIAL BEAK has been attached to the 15-pound (7-kilogram) eagle helping her to grasp food.

Starving

Nate Calvin, an engineer from Boise in Idaho, designed the new beak, which will eventually be replaced with a permanent tougher one.

Jane Fink Cantwell who found the bird scrounging for food and slowly starving at a landfill in Alaska said: "A bullet had to be removed from her curved upper beak, leaving her tongue and sinuses exposed, with a stump useless for grasping food.

"Eating with her beak was like using one chopstick. She also had trouble drinking and couldn’t preen her feathers."

Despite the success of the operation, the bird will never be released back into the wild because she has spent too much time with humans and the final beak will not be strong enough to tear flesh from prey.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1257161.ece

[Sequoia]

1. Bummer, now I can't tear flesh anymore.

TV Dinners maybe?

[TwilightGardener]

2. Awwww! How wonderful that they could help her!

[Maddy McCall]

3. Gorgeous!

What a sweet story.

[CatWoman]

4. see Maddy?

there's hope for your ugly ass frog after all!!

:)

:hi:

[Maddy McCall]

5. Meanie.

:P

:hi:

[Skittles]

16. good to see you Maddy

I am glad the circle-jerkers did not run you off :hi:

[Maddy McCall]

20. Oh no...I'm not goin' anywhere!

I've been busy!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=7812241&mesg_id=7812241


Good to see you, too, Skittles. :hi:

[Skittles]

21. me either

I won't let the likes of neocons run me out of America and I would not let those juvenile little bastards run me out of DU either! :hi:

OMG THE PUPPY IS GORGEOUS!

[tnlefty]

6. Great story!!

And slightly off topic...there are bald eagles at Dollywood, and they have a show of their birds of prey. Signs are clearly posted to NOT bring food items into the area where the shows are. My hubby didn't think that it applied to him and he brought some nachos into the area. He ditched them under his seat when he got 'buzzed' by 2 of the larger birds!

Yep, I laughed.

[magellan]

7. What kind of asshole shoots eagles?

The same thing happened to two eagles near us. One died, the other only had its wing clipped. And now here's another eagle that's been shot. At least she will survive, but she will never be free and wild again as she's meant to be.

This stuff pushes me beyond all patience with how some people abuse their "right to bear arms".

[CatWoman]

8. um, Cheney?

[magellan]

19. Darth shot an eagle??

I hadn't heard that. But it wouldn't surprise me. He hasn't hesitated to destroy the country it symbolizes.

[Indenturedebtor]

9. seriously though why in the hell would you shoot an eagle?

Taxidermy maybe?

Cause no doublewide is complete without a few corpses on the kitchen table.

[CatWoman]

10. on another site where this story ran

it was speculated that poachers did it.

[Indenturedebtor]

12. What for though? A trophy to sell?

[sammythecat]

15. Some guys are just assholes

I live in a rural area, and I know from personal experience some guys just like to kill things with their guns. Cats, groundhog, bird on a wire, whatever they see moving. Tin cans and targets aren't enough. It's not uncommon at all. They'll shoot a living creature just to see if they can hit it. No other reason than that.

I'm a gun owner myself, but I'm also an animal rights kind of guy and I find this kind of behavior despicable and down right evil.

[Indenturedebtor]

24. Yeah a sold a car to a douchebag a year or so ago

Who I had to spend about 23 hours with over two days time... long story. Anyways I took this silly ass to the mall (waiting on loan approval) and he bought a bumper sticker with a coyote in crosshairs. Anyways I'm sure you know where I'm going with this.

What a moron.

[sammythecat]

25. Yep. That's exactly what I was talking about.

I can easily see a guy like that out somewhere plinking cans and a bald eagle perches himself on top of a dead tree. That bald eagle will get shot at. It seems the more beautiful, gaudy, or unusual the creature is, the more tempting it becomes to shoot it.

There's been a successful reintroduction of bald eagles on a nearby stretch of river. By successful, I mean somewhere around a dozen on a 50 mile stretch of river. It began about 20 years ago. I'm outdoors a lot and live a mile from the river and I've yet to see a bald eagle. However, someone or some persons, were lucky enough to see 2 of them. So far 2 bald eagles have been found dead from gunfire. It's almost a certainty that this was the first and only time these people had ever seen a bald eagle and they killed it. They didn't eat it, they left it where it fell, they had nothing to gain but the pleasure of shooting something unusual.

Just a guess on my part, but I think this kind of behavior would most often be found among young guys and teenage boys. Inexperienced, immature personalities, and an a flood of testosterone, they just have a big fascination with violence. I guess that's one reason the Army likes 'em so much.

[magellan]

14. Hey, we own a doublewide

And it's quite complete without the corpses. Until the next hurricane anyway. Then it might not be so complete anymore.

The idiots obviously don't know or care that it's a federal crime to shoot the national symbol, regardless of any desire to stuff the bird for display. Or dinner. But that's no surprise hereabouts.

[Dean Martin]

17. I'll never understand it

I can't fathom why anyone would get a kick out of injuring or killing an eagle.

[magellan]

22. I can't understand why anyone would injure or kill any animal

...other than a legitimate need for food. But that's usually the last reason it happens.

[Dean Martin]

23. I agree

I have no problem with hunters killing animals for food. Other than that, I can't stand it.

[BlooInBloo]

11. Awww!

:)

[SalmonChantedEvening]

13. Named perfectly :)

Bravo to Jane Fink Cantwell, Nate Calvin and all those who helped save her life.

Thank you for the story Cat Woman, it's truly heartwarming :)

[Uncle Joe]

18. This is how psychologically damaged I've become. I find myself disturbed

by the term faux beak because it sounds too much like Faux "News", I'm just thankful O'Reighley's mug isn't posted somewhere on the beak.