05/06/08 Quality of Life

Carrying the desire and capability of human intervention a little too far? With the case of Beauty, an Alaskan Bald Eagle found scavenging for food and nearly dead due to the fact that her upper beak had been shot away, I found myself wondering how much is too much when it comes to doing heroic efforts to save a wild animal that is otherwise destined to perish. Beauty has been living the past few years at a bird recovery center where she has been hand fed, watered and physically cared for as she can not even preen her own feathers. The plan now is to design and fit Beauty with a prosthetic beak. This however will still not allow the Bald Eagle to be released back into the wild, as the artificial beak won't be strong enough for Beauty to be able to catch and eat her own prey. She will be able to drink water on her own and grip food that is hand fed to her. The plans for the Bald Eagle are not definite but there is a possibility that she will be used as an educational tool, mainly to instruct people on why we should not shoot raptors. If Beauty could talk, I wonder if that is the life this once majestic bird would like to lead.