05/06/08 Killing Seals & Waiting for a Finish

Killing Seals & Waiting for a Finish plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Washington and Oregon have been working on ways to help the salmon recovery effort. A huge issue is the natural feeding process. Sea lions eat fish. And they have become voracious eaters when it comes to salmon. Recently a plan of capturing sea lions and relocating them was enacted. Another plan of basically an open season on the seals was shelved but over the weekend, 6 sea lions that were already in traps were shot by unknown person or persons. The area below the Bonneville Dam is being treated as a crime scene. We may find out more today about whether or not the Farm Bill will soon be finished. Committees worked over the weekend and with the exception of 8 unresolved issues, a bill may be ready soon to send to the President. Committee members are meeting again today. Congressman Earl Pomeroy, a member of the House Ag Committee says it hasn't been easy. POMEROY: It's like trying to get that Rubik's Cube done when the squares move around all on their own. I mean this thing is a big, complex piece of legislation and really, you'll never get this thing all tied off perfectly. Something is always springing loose and so it's very important we move to close this thing. Pass what we've got and send it to the President. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. 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. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.