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Sometimes the headlines I see are just too surreal. This AP story reports that President Bush, who has been notoriously stingy with pardons, yesterday granted pardons to a batch of 14 criminals—among them a man who entered a guilty plea for unlawfully killing three bald eagles in the state of Missouri.
Turns out the convicted criminal, Leslie Owen Collier, laced hamburger meat with pesticide in an attempt to kill coyotes. But, seeing as coyotes aren’t the only animals who eat (I think I read that in a book somewhere …), he ended up killing several other animals, including bald eagles. He was sentenced under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Even though the deaths of the bald eagles might be considered accidental, it’s still pretty clear that Collier’s intention was to poison animals. That’s not so much OK in our book.
If we are so forgiving toward those who would wantonly kill wildlife, couldn’t we pardon a few more turkeys this year? Or hey, if that’s too radical—let’s just pardon the turkeys who haven’t violated the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, OK?
Written by Sean Conner
