Bald Eagle Euthanized After Careening Into Truck On LI

SHIRLEY, NY — A bald eagle that flew into the side of a truck on Sunrise Highway in Shirley was injured so severely that it had to be euthanized.

The threatened species struck the truck near Exit 58 at about 10:30 a.m. Thursday, injuring its right wing, and a passing motorist called 911, according to Bobby Horvath of Animals in Need of Rescue. Suffolk police captured the bird, and it was moved into the care of state Department of Environmental Conservation police, Horvath said.

Horvath's group, which does wildlife rehabilitation, was then called in to help, and they were hopeful, but once the bird was examined by their team of veterinarians at Animal General in East Norwich, they quickly lost that hope.

"It was emotional, draining," Horvath recalled in a phone interview Friday morning.

The rescue group made a very tough decision.

"It was a severe wing injury that was not a candidate for surgery," he said. "Some conditions, some fractures are operable and can be surgically repaired. This was beyond the ability of surgical repair."

The majestic bird, which was about 4 years old, had to be euthanized.

It was part of a group of eagles, including a nesting pair at Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge, that had settled in Suffolk over the last 10 years.

"Their numbers are growing every day out in the wild," Horwath said. "I mean, that's a relative term compared to five years ago, or 20 years ago. Now you can go out and see a bald eagle every day in the wild if you know where you are looking."

The birds are attracted by its many open spaces that are plentiful hunting areas, said Horvath, adding, "They show up because it's a good area."

The injured eagle would have been unable to fly, robbed of the full use of its wings, and essentially grounded for the rest of its life.

The bird's wing would have been a chronic problem because it would have been "hanging in front of the bird," Horvath said, adding that the bird would have been able "to grab the wing with its foot," causing it to stumble and fall.

"Sometimes they lay on their back just clutching at their wings because it's not natural," he said. "They are used to the wing laying flush against the back when there's things in front of them. It throws them off."

Amputation was also not an option because of the location of the injury because the wing was broken in a place that would have required a full amputation, which is not allowed under U.S. Fish and Wildlife guidelines, Horvath said.

"They don't permit a whole wing amputation, which means cutting it off at the shoulder like losing your whole arm at the shoulder," he said. "So, my hands were tied."

If the group decided to keep the bird's wing as it was, it would have been prone to stumbling and tipping over, possible self-mutilation, and pain issues, so it was a question of quality-of-life for the rescuers, Horvath explained.

"He could have fallen into his water bowl and drowned," he said. "There's a variety of reasons."

Horvath said something could've been wrong with the bird that led it to fly into the side of the truck. A state lab in Albany will perform a necropsy on the eagle, which will test for avian flu, which is killing bald eagles across the United States, according to Horvath.

The flu is present in waterfowl such as Mallard ducks and geese. If the eagle killed an infected bird, it likely contracted the disease, he said.

"That bird could have had it and definitely could have been compromised, and that's why he flew into the truck," he added.

An environmental conservation department spokeswoman said the eagle was sent to the agency's Wildlife Health Unit for a necropsy examination and submission to the National Eagle Repository. Horvath said that he could not predict when the results would be back.

Horvath said the group has taken some criticism, with people claiming that the bird could have lived in a zoo, but he explained their decision to euthanize the bird was not one made lightly.

"He could have died of old age, but he was going to have a tough struggle," he said.