Re: [Marxism] Homeless hawks

[srobin21@xxxxxxxxxxx]

The fate of wild life in our urban environments is a big deal, and is becoming 
more common.

 Your experience reminds me of something that happened to my companion and 
myself some years ago. In Highland California (65 miles east of Los Angeles) 
where we were living at the time, a flock of feral Indian Ringneck parakeets 
somehow established themselves. Like most parrots, ringnecks nest in hollows in 
trees. One pair established a nest  in a big tree and were raising young.  This 
attracted the attention of a number of bird watchers in the area, who enjoyed 
watching the birds raising their young. The tree was on a common area of a 
private homeowners association (HOA). The  HOA did not, apparently, like the 
constant foot traffic the birds were provoking (they probably didn't like the 
noise, either, the birds were noisy). One day, the management went out and 
chopped the tree down, with the young birds in the nest (!). The tree was 
carted away. No provision was made for the young birds. We found out about it 
that night and made somewhat of a stink about it locally. The HOA management 
could have cared less.In hindsight, I should have tried to get the local DA to 
prosecute for animal cruelty or sued- given the conservative jurisdiction of 
San Bernardino County, it would have not gotten very far.

       In the case of the hawks' nest, animal cruelty charges under a local 
ordinance or state statute may be a possibility, as may some sort of tort case 
by the residents of the building on which the hawks' nested.  Steve

- _ --------------------
It is hard for me to express the feelings of disgust I have for the denizens of 
927 Fifth Avenue responsible for this cruel, insensitive and ultimately 
barbaric act. A website devoted to restoring the nest can be found at: 
http://www.palemale.com/. It has some wonderful pictures of the bird, his mate 
and their offspring.
The Times reported that while red-tailed hawks are protected under the federal 
Migratory Species Treaty, the law does not prohibit removal of an "inactive" 
nest -- one containing no chicks, eggs or nestlings. This according to Nicholas 
Throckmorton, a spokesmen for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who okayed 
the removal of the nest. I can't say that this surprises me that much. The Bush 
administration, like the Reagan administration before it, has a knack for 
hiring people who are hostile to the aims of the government agencies they 
supervise.
This brutal act obviously resonates with other things going on in the world 
involving human beings. One cannot but think of the thousands of New Yorkers 
who are homeless now, victims of the same cruel economic forces ultimately 
under the control of the kinds of people who destroyed the nest.
We are also inevitably reminded of Palestinians who lose their homes as an act 
of collective punishment wrought by the Zionist state.
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