Althouse: "It's just hard to have your national bird in your arms, going through seizures in a way it can't control..."

December 29, 2013

"It's just hard to have your national bird in your arms, going through seizures in a way it can't control..."

"... when you can see it's in pain but don't know what's happening to it."

29 comments:

Humperdink said...: The first commenter of the article blamed fracking. Apparently angling for an internship at the NY Times.; 12/29/13, 3:12 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: In the picture, the eagle's head is turned to the side. If your mind doesn't register that at first, it looks like a very upset duck.; 12/29/13, 3:18 PM
Gahrie said...: 20 eagles? I bet windfarms kill more than that on an average month.; 12/29/13, 3:29 PM
Skeptical Voter said...: Probably loose emf from the big NASA data center nearby is scrambling the bird's brains.; 12/29/13, 3:31 PM
rhhardin said...: Just change the national bird.

I don't see the problem.; 12/29/13, 3:31 PM
rhhardin said...: The bald eagle sounds like a seagull anyway.

You want a red-tail, whose call is substituted in movies for the bald eagle's.

Even the immature red-tail sounds like a seagull, though.; 12/29/13, 3:35 PM
YoungHegelian said...: Is there anyone out there with experience in pathology who can tell me why, with 20 eagle cadavers to work with as they please, veterinary pathologists haven't been able to at least figure out if the cause is toxin, bacterial, or viral?

Major organs just don't shut down for good without some sort of "insult" that shows up on post-mortem examination, right? And, while there may ordinarily be a shortage of dead eagles to examine, there certainly is no shortage of diseased fowl to examine, the poultry industry being what it is.; 12/29/13, 3:35 PM
rhhardin said...: Seizures usually come from eating poisoned rodents, I think.; 12/29/13, 3:36 PM
rhhardin said...: It's obviously a national crisis.; 12/29/13, 3:37 PM
rhhardin said...: Maybe they're into the Colorado marijuana patches.; 12/29/13, 3:38 PM
Humperdink said...: @rhhardin. Following on to your idea, maybe we could import a new national bird from China. You know they would be cheap and plentiful. Longevity is ways question mark with Chinese products.

The downside would be a loss of America jobs.; 12/29/13, 3:58 PM
CatherineM said...: Obviously, it's Global Warming, carbon emissions, fracking and George W. Bush.

Poor birdies.; 12/29/13, 4:26 PM
campy said...: Obviously, it's Global Warming, carbon emissions, fracking and George W. Bush.

You forgot Sarah Palin and Phil Robertson.; 12/29/13, 4:48 PM
George M. Spencer said...: Infected grebes.

And I just bought some at the grocery store.; 12/29/13, 4:50 PM
rhhardin said...: I sent an owl to rehab once, having called them to pick it up.

I put it in a cardboard box labelled WOL in magic marker, in the shade.

Susie my doberman noticed it on the lawn one morning, just standing there looking owlish.

A guy came out in a jeep, so you know he's a serious rehabber.; 12/29/13, 5:05 PM
Humperdink said...: If this occurred during 2001-08, it's Bush's fault.

2013? It's a shovel ready job.; 12/29/13, 5:19 PM
Sorun said...: I don't know what's wrong with the eagles, but the LA Times' commentariat appears to have lead poisoning.; 12/29/13, 5:24 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Somebody's been vaccinating eagles in secret.; 12/29/13, 6:09 PM
Jupiter said...: My national bird is the goose. Cooked.; 12/29/13, 6:14 PM
Fritz said...: The local eagles around Chesapeake Bay have been doing so well that most juveniles have no choice but to migrate out of the region to nest. I think we can spare a few for Utah, as long as they don't have to convert to Mormon.; 12/29/13, 6:18 PM
Titus said...: Happy Holidays fellow repubicans!

I went to Sauk Prairie with my parents and saw like 2 dozen bald eagles...it was cool. I asked my mom how they taste and she said that is bad.

We fucking eat everything why not bald eagle on some fab menu at a fab restaurant.

tits.; 12/29/13, 7:04 PM
Titus said...: by the by....airports really do separate the U.S. big time.

The NYC and Boston gate was across from the Pensacola and Birmingham gate.

NYC and Boston gate is thin, ethnic, designer wear, childless and monied and the Pensacola Birmingham gate is wide eyed, fat, barely affording their airline tickets with many kids, some adults missing teeth and flannel pj "pants. One of the mullet and huge side burn Pensacola things had some NRA shirt on, natch.

I have to walk by those gates and take a brief glance, show my disgust at their hair, look up and down and give them a crusty while they are thinking about what I do with my anus.

There was one loan asian in the Birmingham gate and she looked sad so sad looking the fab across from her and many of her fellow peeps.; 12/29/13, 7:41 PM
Levi Starks said...: Well It's pretty clear to me that the eagles were already on hospice care, and were probably given an a accidental overdose of the pain killer of choice.
But it does raise a few questions, what is the average life expectancy of a bald eagle?
And if you find a dead eagle which has died of old age how do you make that determination?
Of course I understand eagles in Belgium are legally opting out early all the time. Mostly due to the depression caused by living in a socialist nation.; 12/29/13, 8:10 PM
Fritz said...: "We fucking eat everything why not bald eagle on some fab menu at a fab restaurant."

Eagles eat carrion whenever possible. Eagle food preference in order:

1) Steal something fresh from an Osprey

2) Carrion

3) Hunt or fish for itself

Of course, we eat crabs, which we bait with carrion, so maybe eagles are delicious.; 12/29/13, 8:22 PM
Wince said...: The NYT just ruled-out a coordinated attack as the cause.; 12/29/13, 9:20 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: The easy thing is having the other guy's seizuring national bird in your arms.

Unless it's in a way it can control.

Or unless you can't see that it's in pain.

Sometimes you don't know what's happening to it. Unless you know it's having a seizure. Then you know. Or you don't.; 12/29/13, 11:20 PM
Laura said...: Obviously severe head trauma. Chicken dinner anyone? I just won bet on a desk.; 12/29/13, 11:34 PM
Larry J said...: Skeptical Voter said...
Probably loose emf from the big NASA data center nearby is scrambling the bird's brains.

NASA != NSA

NASA = National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NSA = National Security Agency

NSA is the one with the big data center in Utah.; 12/30/13, 6:58 AM
MadisonMan said...: I was up in Prairie du Sac over the weekend, and the eagles are everywhere up there.

Whatever is affecting the eagles of the west has not made it to WI.; 12/30/13, 8:40 AM