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Smuggled owl’s story hatches years later
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SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - The San Francisco Zoo has revealed that an owl in its care was smuggled into the country disguised as an Easter egg before being rescued by a sting operation.
The origins of Athena, a protected Eurasian eagle owl, have been kept secret for more than two years because she was evidence in a trans-Atlantic trial, which involved corrupt falconers in Europe and the United States, according to a press release by Zoo spokeswoman Gwendolyn Tornatore.
But today, officials from the zoo and U.S. Fish and Wildlife will finally tell her story in full, as part of an educational campaign about the plight of raptors. The trial recently has resulted in a sentencing, so Athena can finally be officially turned over to the zoo, the release said.
Athena came to the country as an egg in April or May 2005, one of 15 eggs illegally transported from Europe by smuggler Jeffrey Diaz of Redwood City, according to the zoo’s release and news reports of the time.
The eggs he transported had been painted as Easter eggs with commercial egg dyes, and transported in baskets on commercial airliners.
The eggs were kept warm with hot-water bottles that had been placed under the wrappings of the Easter baskets. However, in the nest, owls typically turn their eggs every hour to keep their temperature consistent, the release states.
Since the incubation conditions in the baskets were poor, only three of the 15 eggs survived. One of those resulting owlets was Athena. After she and the other owls were seized from Diaz’s home as part of the undercover Operation Easter Basket, she was sent to the San Francisco Zoo, where she has lived for two years, traveling to schools to educate students about raptors.
In November 2006, Diaz pleaded guilty to four felony counts of smuggling. Eagle owls are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, according to the U.S. Department of justice.
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Examiner Reader said:
""city officials have given preliminary approval to a proposal to turn the local zoo into a sanctuary for rescued wildlife and domestic animals. A committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 2-1 to send their plan on to the full board next month. Supervisor Chris Daly.."" For crying out loud Daly if you have time for this nonsense why not at least come to our neighborhood group meeting when we invited you. Geeze there are so many immediate problems in SOMA than worry about the damm zoo.
5 agree | 1 disagree
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Andrew Plumridge said:
It is completely irrelevant whether or not the brothers were taunting the tiger on Christmas Day. In law the victim and the two brothers have a right to be protected from attack irrespective of their behaviour, and any failure by the zoo to provide that protection constitutes negligence. If the owners and management of the zoo had been forewarned about security failures and done nothing about it, that constitutes gross negligence. In either event, both the law and natural justice is clear in that through the simple fact that the tiger escaped on the day in question, the victim and the two brothers were not adequately protected and the zoo is therefore culpable. "Res es videlicet" (Latin = the facts speak for themselves).
6 agree | 3 disagree
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DownWithALF said:
Arrest Mollinedo. The problems with the zoo got far worse on his watch, and monies from public bonds have been mis allocated. Culminating in negligent homicide. Mr. Mollendo, you belong in the Grey Bar Hotel.
69 agree | 79 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The brothers haven't been cleared, the investigation has barely begun. We've got a long ways to go before we get to the truth. It's all about 'due process' which is very slow.
67 agree | 61 disagree
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Juan Pescadino said:
Police have now officially cleared the brothers of involvement through taunting. The zoo needs to be held accountable for its lack of security, its failure to cooperate, its failure to respond and for all the cover up lies the director and his minions spewed to the press and the public.
81 agree | 92 disagree
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