More Than 30 Pelicans Have Been Mutilated on California's Beaches [View all]

[douglas9]

Since March, dozens of brown pelicans appear to have been seriously injured by a person or people in Orange County, conservationists said.

The lifeguards in Orange County, Calif., brought the injured brown pelicans to the veterinarian one at a time, the birds’ large wings mutilated, their bones twisted and fractured.

Debbie Wayns and her colleagues at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center, a nonprofit organization that works with injured wildlife, examined the birds and came to a conclusion about a likely cause: Someone had done it deliberately.

“It was just wrong on every level,” said Mrs. Wayns, the center’s operations manager. “There was no question that a person or persons did this.”

Since March, more than 30 pelicans have been attacked and injured along Orange County’s coastline, according to the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center. The attacks have spurred an investigation by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which is working with the local authorities to find the person or people responsible, Mrs. Wayns said.

Of the 32 brown pelicans that Mrs. Wayns and her team have treated since March, only 10 have survived, she said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/us/pelicans-killed-california.html