AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. – Neighbors in Amelia Island are worried about several protected birds that have been found shot and some of them even killed.
More than a dozen birds have been brought to the B.E.A.K.S Wildlife Sanctuary all suffering from various pellet wounds. People in the community said it has to stop.
Michelle Theobald Beatty said she was just walking Sunset Beach on Thursday when she saw an injured bird being attacked by a dog. The bird then jumped into the ocean and she jumped in to save it.
"We fed him some fresh fish and gave him a little shower. We want to get him back together, but I want to know who's doing it," said Beatty. "I got him out, ran him up to my car, got him home and someone said, 'Call Cindy,' and she said he's probably been shot because someone's been taking pop shots at the birds on Sunset Beach."
After nursing the bird in her bathroom overnight, Beatty took the bird to Cindy Mosling, who is the cofounder of B.E.A.K.S. Mosling said she's taken in nearly a dozen birds that have been shot in the last couple of days.
Mosling said a wounded herring gull had been hit by a pellet, the same injury that an osprey suffered Thursday afternoon.
"You know, when you get one bird in you don't think about it because things happen. But then I got another and another, and they all came from the same area, including the osprey and the osprey has a single would under its wing," said Mosling.
Mosling said these kinds of birds are all protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which means shooting them is a state, federal and international crime. But Beatty just wants to know why anyone would shoot them in the first place.
"How can you do that? Why? There's no sense in that," said Beatty. "It makes me so angry, you've got no idea. To see something senseless just shot for no reason. What, for fun? That's not funny."
Minutes after News4Jax left the sanctuary another call came in about a pelican that was just shot. Mosling said the bird that was taken in Friday will be released back into the wild in about three weeks.