September 2008

A local animal rights group says it had nothing to do with a rash of vandalism at the Festival of Hawks at Holiday Beach conservation area in Amherstburg over the weekend.

"The Windsor Animal Action Group (WAAG) in no way endorses illegal acts that result in the damaging of property," WAAG spokesman Dan MacDonald said Monday of the wilful damaging of 25 expensive specialized nets.

"We feel really bad about it."

Organizers of the annual event arrived before dawn Saturday to find their bird blinds had been raided and the specialized nets chopped down and their supporting poles snapped.

The birding community uses the two-day event to assist environmental and natural scientists at the Holiday Beach Migration Observatory in banding birds and collecting data for federal and provincial agencies studying bird migratory patterns.

On Friday at Erie Wildlife Rescue a cage containing a rescued bald eagle that had been nursed back to health and was to be released during the Festival of Hawks was opened and the bird was gone.

Organizers suspected the two incidents are connected and may be the work of animal rights activists but MacDonald said that's not the case.

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