What is this?

[KansasKid]

Quote:
I'd be willing to bet they'd make coot taste like prime rib!

no thank you! i got tricked into shooting some when i first started hunting waterfowl because my bud told me the limit was 15 and i went at it. Luckily i only shot 1 (thank god i wasn't a good shot) i could barley make myself clean the dang thing!!

 

[THunter]

So you know well what I figure a cormorant would taste/smell like. Yuck!

'Bout like a water vulture I'd bet.

 

[geepy]

I shot, cleaned and cooked a coot. The dog wouldn't even eat it.

 

[THunter]

I've heard they make good gumbo????

 

[KansasKid]

Quote:
cook it anyway you think you'll like it, and you couldn't won't get the pigs to eat it!!
(sorry to OP for slowly getting off subject

)

 

[Sore Thumb Suburbanite]

About all the legalities involved...just about anything is illegal if you look at it the wrong way. I don't think you knowingly did anything wrong, and I'm sure you won't keep it long. I'll bet you're one of those good people who want the best for the bird and will give it a successful next step in its bird life. I don't think you should be the least bit careful of posting this info for us to see, like others have said you should be...
Its a common bird that nobody would miss (or look in your back yard for), you helped it out a bit...its no biggie, and personally-I would have likely done the same.

ANd about the crazy idea of getting a permit to potentially keep this bird...Even if you have permits for animals, that doesn't prevent you from getting harrassed by fish and game and/or raided... my dad's buddy had a few rare falcons and a golden eagle with a degenerative foot disease that required daily ointment and therapy that he had for years, the Fish and game guys never let up on him though he had always had legal permits and finally they raided his house when he was gone one day and took his birds and uthenized them since they couldn't take care of them...and because they didn't want to deal with him wanting them back.... so don't bother with permits.

Everything seems to be protected these days, one of the reasons that the whole west coast is OVERRUN with seals, they're menaces and cause a million problems-including attracting record numbers of great white sharks close into shore!!!, plus cost taxpayers a ton whenever they get "rehabbed" or sink vessels in the harbors... There should be a reasonable goal amount attached to protected species so they don't get more than their fair share of human protection and help... yeesh... good intentions start out allright but later open up a whole can of worms.

oh, and I think that bird is pretty gnarly looking, its feet are so strange!

 

[C&Rman]

Quote:
Thank you! All this legal and illeagal stuff is making me go nuts. A few people care about the law in my town but there are so many snakes all my neighbors kill them too. I will stop killing them! They live in the water so I am assuming they are water snakes.
This bird cannot fly like everybody seems to think it can. It can barely hope up on the tub of water I put in there for him, so I made him steps with bricks and now he uses those whenever he wants in the water. He is very smart I will say "hi" and he will hop up the bricks to the water tub and I will drop a fish in the water and he will stick his whole head in the water and hook the fish. I will let him out if it is really that big a deal, he is just so sweet and I am attached already. He doesnt seem ill either he acts like a duck would except with more personallity.

 

[KansasKid]

Any wild bird will commonly hide any illness it might have to protect it from predators trying to spot the weak ones out. it truly does sounds like something might be wrong with it if it has had trouble hopping up on the bricks though. And by the way it sounds it already knows your no threat so letting it out probably won't be any big deal at all and might stay right there waiting for more fish.

as long as it is loose you don't have to worry about a lot of the legalities

 

[C&Rman]

Well if it does stick around I will be so worried about it if it has some sort of illness, right now it is in a predator proof cage. I was hoping to keep it and build it, its own personal avairy next to my peacocks. The good news is I found out that it is not illegal to kill snakes in Utah. I am going to have to find out about this bird tommorow. A person who worked with these birds in the Zoo told me I could keep it.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

C&Rman :

Well if it does stick around I will be so worried about it if it has some sort of illness, right now it is in a predator proof cage. I was hoping to keep it and build it, its own personal avairy next to my peacocks. The good news is I found out that it is not illegal to kill snakes in Utah. I am going to have to find out about this bird tommorow. A person who worked with these birds in the Zoo told me I could keep it.

no in most cases it's not illegal to kill snakes. You can kill any of them except the endangered Indigo snake here in Ga.
However, plain and simple, this is a migratory waterofowl. It IS protected under the US Fish and Wildlife Service Division of the U.S.D.I.
Plain and simple they will fine you to death over it and you can get possible jail time in certain cases.
Folks from zoos dont neccisarily always know what they are talking about, just because the work at a zoo.
Thing is, I think it's crazy too, especially if it is injured or sick. But that's the way they look at it and that is THE LAW.
One reason is spread of disease. This works both ways seeing how you have mentioned you have peafowl too. Is it really worth you getting them sick over, if this bird has something ?

Now say it doesnt, but you have something in your birds. This bird gets it, you get tired of this bird and let it go. It goes back on the lake and spreads it to all the native wild birds.... the trickle down effect could be horrible.

Not saying this would happen. But this is one of the primary reasons that they have this law. It's not so much they are being jerks about it. But yes they would rather see 1 bird die of natural causes than to see an entire flock fall prey to otherwise "good intentions"


but the short and skinny of it is Federal and most all state laws 100% prohibit the taking of any wild animal of any species in a live caught mannor. Period. Wild life rehab centers are the ONLY place that can legally take them in.​