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Treatment of dead swan was wrong
Published Wednesday, March 12, 2008
I live on the Otter Tail River near Ottertail City. We have had open water this entire winter. Along with that, we have had migratory birds visiting and spending time eating and resting. Recently I noticed a dead adult swan on the ice. I made a call to the DNR office in Fergus Falls and reported my finding with hope that there would be concern and someone would come out and take a look at the bird.
The response I received was that just to leave it — the eagles will take care of it. We thought that if they take the time to put bands on the birds and track their migration, perhaps someone would be interested in its demise. Or at least what caused its death. It seems the local DNR has more important things than researching and looking into a protected Minnesota bird.
Jim Cote, Val Schulz - Ottertail
Comments
The Daily Journal is happy to host community conversations about news and life in Fergus Falls and the surrounding area. As hosts, we expect guests will show respect for each other. That means we don't threaten or defame each other, and we keep conversations free of personal attacks. Witty is great. Abusive is not. If you think a post violates these standards, don't escalate the situation. Instead, flag the comment to alert us. We'll take action if necessary. It's not hard. This should be a place where people want to read and contribute -- a place for spirited exchanges of opinion. So those who persist with racist, defamatory or abusive postings risk losing the privilege to post at all.Posted by horseygirl (anonymous) on March 12, 2008 at 12:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I had a similar experience with the DNR only this was about 5 baby raccoons that had been living in my granary and eating the cat food I had set out in a bucket. We found their mother dead. I captured the little critters and called the local DNR officer and asked him what to do with them. He told me to throw them out in a ditch somewhere, there's too many of them anyway. If he came and got them, he would kill them. Of course, I wasn't going to have that. They were innocent creatures, deserving of decent treatment and the chance to live. I talked to another person who was quite knowledgeable about raccoons and on this person's advice, I bought a huge bag of cat food and brought the little critters out to some property with a corn field, creek and other coons. I opened the bag of cat food and opened the pet taxi and left the area. We checked on them often and as far as we could tell, most, if not all made it. The DNR wasn't interested in the least. I was very disapointed with their approach.
Posted by Lori (anonymous) on March 12, 2008 at 2:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Doesn't this make you proud to live in Otter Tail County?
Posted by localfisherman (anonymous) on March 14, 2008 at 9:47 a.m. (Suggest removal)
DNR was right on this one. you have to let nature run its course. It would have been a waste of fuel and time to investigate a dead swan or a litter of raccons, just let nature play its hand.
Posted by FFguy (anonymous) on March 14, 2008 at 3:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I just can't believe that the DNR didn't send out a little Swan herse to pick up the dearly departed creatures.
Posted by justme (anonymous) on March 14, 2008 at 4:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Before you can justifiably criticize any agency, you need to first educate yourself on the agency itself. First of all, the DNR is not Animal Rescue, and secondly, they are a state agency, so its decisions and practices are not made locally. Take a few moments to look at their website before you cast judgement. Animals die all the time, it's what makes the world go around. Imagine how much tax money they could spend investigating every incident called in? Then, you'd have everybody complaining about that.
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