Texas Wildlife Association - http://www.texas-wildlife.org
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HUMANE SOCIETY PLEADS GUILTY!

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Washington Humane Society pleaded guilty on Tuesday to the crime of euthanizing three mockingbird hatchlings _ a violation of federal bird protection law.

The case, prosecutors said, was representative of a wider pattern of behavior, which lasted for more than four years and involved 881 protected migratory birds.

In a plea bargain, the society pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count for capturing the 2-day-old mockingbirds outside the State Department last summer and promptly killing them. The birds had been dive-bombing people to protect a nearby nest.

``A majority of these birds were captured alive, were sick or injured, and shortly after capture were euthanized,'' said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald L. Walutes Jr.

For the mockingbird incident, the private, nonprofit organization was sentenced by a federal judge to one year of unsupervised probation during which all society employees must undergo training by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on migratory bird laws.

It also received a $50 special assessment to be paid to the U.S. attorney's office. In the agreement, it acknowledged mishandling the much larger number of birds.

The society, which provides all animal control services under a $650,000 annual contract with the District of Columbia, ``inadvertently and unintentionally violated the act,'' defense attorney Lisa J. Stevenson said.