Hunting Washington Forum

Community => Advocacy, Agencies, Access => Topic started by: netcoyote on September 15, 2014, 10:04:38 AM

Title: Injured wildlife - Who do you call?
Post by: netcoyote on September 15, 2014, 10:04:38 AM: Ran into an interesting situation this past weekend. Driving over 97 just about into Pateros when my buddy and I spotted something in a tree down near the river. It looked at first like a black trash bag caught on a limb and blowing in the breeze. When we got closer it looked like maybe a bird. I stopped and we checked it out with binocs and sure enough, it was an eagle that seemed to be snagged on something that trapped it to a branch. Maybe picked up some fishing line, piece of string, wire or bungee, but it was clearly trapped and struggling to get free. We watched it for awhile and it was clear that whatever was holding it was not going to release and the bird could probably struggle until it died.

What to do? It was Saturday and I figured it would be hard to get any WDFW people to respond but I called the Ephrata office on the odd chance I might be able to leave a message. As expected, no one answered and I got a recording that advised me to wait until the end and leave a message. I waited through the whole recording and it just kept repeating, never allowing me to leave a message. Realistically, I don't know what could have been done since the bird was high in the tree and it would have been about impossible to approach to help it. I would have to believe that WDFW would have experience dealing with type of thing.

Has anyone else run across something like this? Did anyone else happen to see the eagle in the tree? Who do you call for injured wildlife that could possibly be rescued?

We checked out the tree on our way back home Sunday evening and saw no evidence of the bird in the tree. It either finally got free or someone took care of the problem.
Title: Re: Injured wildlife - Who do you call?
Post by: Knocker of rocks on September 15, 2014, 10:12:54 AM: I'd call 911 and start the call with "non-emergency". That's what I've been told to do many times by PE and FD to report abandoned cars, file police reports and ask for help with fallen elderly.
Title: Re: Injured wildlife - Who do you call?
Post by: netcoyote on September 15, 2014, 10:37:20 AM: Yea, I thought about 911 but thought they'd get PO because it wasn't about a human problem. I always heard you have to call the non-emergency LEO number. Never had any luck with that on other occasions. Numbers are usually impossible to find and even if you find it, they are never monitored on weekends anyway.
Title: Re: Injured wildlife - Who do you call?
Post by: Knocker of rocks on September 15, 2014, 02:29:14 PM: Quote from: netcoyote on September 15, 2014, 10:37:20 AM
Yea, I thought about 911 but thought they'd get PO because it wasn't about a human problem.

I just let dispatch take care of it. If they get PO, so what?
Title: Re: Injured wildlife - Who do you call?
Post by: CAMPMEAT on September 15, 2014, 02:32:43 PM: You call and ask to be transferred to the WSP and then tell them to tell the WDFW about the situation.
Title: Re: Injured wildlife - Who do you call?
Post by: WSU on September 15, 2014, 02:39:48 PM: Or just call WSP. I've done that before on the weekend about game violations.
Title: Re: Injured wildlife - Who do you call?
Post by: bigtex on September 15, 2014, 09:28:59 PM: Quote from: CAMPMEAT on September 15, 2014, 02:32:43 PM
You call and ask to be transferred to the WSP and then tell them to tell the WDFW about the situation.

:yeah:

If you call 911 they will (hopefully) then call WSP which dispatches 24/7/365 for WDFW and forward on the report. Or you can just call WSP yourself.