The story about Hoosier Jeffrey Henry, who faces possible fines and jail time for bringing a sick bald eagle into his home and trying to nurse it back to health, is starting to get national attention:
Let’s hope, unlike say public school officials, whoever adjudicates Henry’s case can take his motives and treatment of the bird into consideration. He sounds like someone who’d take the $500 fine for the team (Team America) to have successfully kept the eagle alive. Sometimes well-meaning citizens don’t operate in exactly the way whatever bureaucratic wildlife organization would recommend in the same situation, but they should not automatically be in danger of jail time. It’s not like owning a bald eagle is a great boon to one’s finances.
[. . .]
This reminds me of a 2011 story in which an 11-year-old Virginia girl rescued a woodpecker from the family cat only to be approached by a Fish & Wildlife agent flanked by an armed state trooper informing them of a court date and a $500 fee:
What's interesting about the story is that Henry use to work for the DNR and knew he would probably get in trouble for taking the eagle in, but he did it anyway. That awareness and his lack of whining makes his act of civil disobedience more special.
