By the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife authorities are seeking information into the separate shootings of a bald and golden eagle earlier this month in Columbia County.
The first eagle was found last week near Payne Hollow, between Waitsburg and Dayton. It appeared to be shot about a week before. It was still alive but so severely injured that it had to be killed.
The second eagle was in the Tucannon Habitat Management Unit, located downriver of Little Goose Dam, with a gunshot to a leg.
The juvenile bird is also believed to have been shot about a week before it was found.
Two eagles shot in Southeastern WA, WDFW seeks perpetrator
(AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is on the lookout for the person or persons who killed two eagles in Southeastern Washington recently.
In the first week of December, two eagles were found with gunshot wounds on two separate occasions in Columbia County. A bald eagle found near Payne Hollow was so badly wounded that it could not be saved by animal rehabilitators. The next day, a golden eagle was found dead in the Snake River, near Little Goose Dam.
“Both wounds were consistent with a gunshot, one with a shotgun and one with a rifle,” said WDFW Police Officer Chase Copenhaver.