Alison Capo Fine Canceled After Daughter Saves Endangered Woodpecker (VIDEO)

UPDATE: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a statement expressing regret for an unintended wildlife citation that was issued to Alison Capo. A portion of the release reads:

On June 13, a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service observed a woman carrying a cage that contained a woodpecker at a home improvement store in Fredericksburg, Virginia. As possession of a bird may potentially violate the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the agent initiated an inquiry to determine whether a potential violation had occurred.

Upon speaking with Ms. Capo, on June 27, the agent determined that no further action was warranted. A citation that had been previously drafted by the agent was cancelled on June 28.

Unfortunately, the citation was processed unintentionally through an automated system despite our office’s request to cancel the ticket. The Service has contacted Ms. Capo to express our regret. The Service is also sending Ms. Capo a formal letter explaining the clerical error and confirming that ticket should never have been issued. The ticket is null and void.

A representative also contacted The Huffington Post, stating that Capo was not fined and specifically refuting reports that the agent handed her a citation.

___

Original entry:

A Virginia woman, Alison Capo, was fined $535 dollars after her 11-year-old girl prevented an endangered woodpecker from being eaten by a cat.

After saving the bird, the pair went into a home improvement store and brought the woodpecker with them, to keep it out of the heat. There, they ran into a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent, who issued them a fine and a threat of jail time.

Skylar, the animal-loving daughter, said, "Kids should be able to save a baby bird and not go home crying."

The agency has now dropped the charges.

Visit Earthjustice and WWF to learn about helping other threatened and endangered species.

Comments

[chlki]

09:12 PM on 08/16/2011

they say they were on their way but were they really? either way you can't mess with wildlife that's why they are called wild. Pick up the phone and report it immediately with out touching the animal. you so much as get caught with a eagle feather and you are in serious trouble, leave it to the people that know what they are doing.

[wblum524]

09:07 AM on 08/06/2011

BLAME JIMMY CARTER. HE CREATED THE ENVIORNMENTAL WACKOS NOW RUNNING THIS COUNTRY. THERES NOTHING WRONG WITH COMMON SENSE APPROACHES TO STAY GREEN BUT A LOT OF THESE PEOPLE NOW IN FED, STATE AND LOCAL ENVIORNMENTAL AGENCIES ARE OVERBOARD. JUST BECAUSE OF THIS IM GOING OUTSIDE AND BURN SOME PLASTICS AND A RUBBER TIRE

[AnthropologistAmongApes]

12:58 PM on 08/06/2011

Ecological illiteracy cannot be concealed behind an avatar.

[kwaut lizard]

02:04 PM on 08/06/2011

Breathe deeply while you are tending that fire,
to get the full effect of the Dioxins and PCB's,

[majornutt2]

08:54 AM on 08/06/2011

So if the forest ranger is being mauled by a bear, for god sakes don't interfere, it would disturb the natural order of things.

[redsoxpagan]

09:48 PM on 08/08/2011

Seriously? By what i d io ti log ic did you manage to pull that out of your a ss? Pa the tic.
stay in your mom's bas em ent.

[KarlaElisa]

10:57 AM on 08/21/2011

i hear you and agree. f the wildlife cops who typically serve big industry at the expense of those forests they're supposed to 'manage'.

[Hopey Changey]

01:37 AM on 08/06/2011

What ever happened to common sense?
It also should be noted that the woodpecker was a protected species, not endangered as the headline says. Almost every bird you may see in your neighborhood is protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, robins, blackbirds, chickadee, doves, wrens, hummingbirds, jays, geese, and hundreds more are protected.

[grummer5]

05:57 PM on 08/05/2011

Amazing...it only takes one idiot worker to make an entire organization look stupid....come on folks....get real...

[Woodsman001]

05:55 PM on 08/05/2011

The Feral-Cat Solution:

Make new cat-ownership AND care-taking of feral-cats a felony, with fines and prison for non-compliance until this ecological-disaster they created is under control. Shoot-on-sight being the fastest, most humane, most economical (0.3 cent to 5 cents, a ONE TIME expense per cat) method. It's how I LEGALLY ridded my land of this nightmare. (NONE returned, the TNR-advocates' "vacuum effect" is a lie. Native wildlife that BELONGS HERE returned.) It's also the ONLY method faster than cats breed and adapt to. Cats that evade traps have offspring that evade traps. Traps caused this 150M cat-disaster.

If it's not legal by you then use "SSS Cat Management", Shoot, Shovel, and Shut-Up. Legal everywhere. It may be the only thing that saves us from this disaster caused by spineless lawmakers. Don't waste your time arguing with cat-lovers, as I tried for 15 years. Do what needs to be done FIRST. After you've made your land 100% cat-free can you take your time to educate the ineducable. Bury or incinerate them so the diseases all cats carry won't infect wildlife nor humans.

Here's some info on the most humane ways to manage feral-cats, including the best firearms and ammo required. I strongly advise not using their suggested slow and inefficient trapping methods -- the very method that got us into the ecological-disaster that we have now.
http://deenawinter.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/ec1781.pdf

[SirCoolBreeze]

10:51 AM on 08/05/2011

The ticket was issued. The stupidity compounded. The lies/cover-up normal for a Government worker worried about his job.

[nnealj1]

07:00 AM on 08/05/2011

It's not too far apart from citing children for running lemonade stands...always some folks in authority who seem to get caught up in their authority and they leave their common sense and their humanity at the door....

[Koeiseun]

07:33 PM on 08/04/2011

Cops of any kind, are most always universally arseholes.....

[KarlaElisa]

10:58 AM on 08/21/2011

fanned.

[catbrawl]

03:44 PM on 08/04/2011

More government regulations anyone?

[apiazza]

07:45 AM on 08/05/2011

How about more sensible government regulations. You paint with a broad brush as if all government regulations are bad because of one stupid agent. Perhaps we should just eliminate all regulations and let people do whatever they want? Then poaching and taking of any wildlife wouldn't be against the law.

[edulist]

03:33 PM on 08/04/2011

Fire the overzealous, controlling, needs some excitement, picks on children, egotistic, pseudo-cop, bullying FWS employee. Hire someone who can tell the difference between compassionate and criminal activity.

[Kaylyn Blanchard]

10:43 AM on 08/05/2011

Coudln't have said it better!!!

[GeorgeOTJungle]

03:10 PM on 08/04/2011

Some years ago a friend was clearing his rather long driveway of a heavy snow. While making the first pass, he always observed the second side, and saw a large bird on the ground at the base of a power pole. It was late, appropriate authorities were closed, so friend picked up bird and kept it safe overnight. Authorities were contacted the next day and he was told he was guilty of a misdemeanor for picking up a dead bird. He said never mind, he would just bury it. He was told that was a felony!
Same person recently found a deceased bird that was also on one of those lists! He quietly cleaned the bird, wraped it, placed it in a hole with a rock over the top to prevent scavengers. Those same officials are quite happy today, they didn't have to make any decisions that they didn't want to make in the first place, and their jobs were not jeapardized. George

[Just4theHalibut]

01:36 PM on 08/04/2011

This is not an "update", this is a complete revison of the earlier version of the story which was one of the worst pieces of journalism I've ever read. It SPECIFICALLY says the woodpecker was endangered. The options a federal agent has under the Endangered Species act are much stricter than under the migratory bird act. (For those of you posters who claimed to have enforcement experience, and said that she had not used common sense or discretion, think about the difference between deciding not to issue a speeding ticket for someone going 5 miles over the limit, and not issuing a ticket to someone driving erratically at 20 miles over the limit) And in fact, the agent did NOT issue a ticket at the store but researched the situation and then decided a ticket was not necessary! Did her job and did it well, in fact, like most federal workers I have known. Finally, the journalist did not bother to find out what actually happened to the bird. I'd like to know. Did the "hero" mom and kid take it home and nurse it back to health? Or did it die, as most birds do after being attacked by cats let free to roam by irresponsible owners. If we can't trust HUFFPO/AOL to report properly on a small incident like this, how can we trust them to enlighten us about oil spills or larger environmental incidents?

[Lisa Watson]

02:33 PM on 08/04/2011

Well said.

[kwaut lizard]

06:14 PM on 08/04/2011

Baboom, brilliant.

[jbjg24m]

11:40 AM on 08/04/2011

bird bird bird bird is the word, bird bird bird bird is the word , don't u know bird is the word, bird bird bird bird bird bird is the word

[GGSS2020]

04:55 PM on 08/04/2011

LMAO!

[antipodal2u]

11:19 AM on 08/04/2011

Sneakysneaky US fish and wildlife