Illegal Eagles

NPR reports that there's been a huge rise in the traffic of under-the-table eagles- and the poaching happens in our backyard. A bald or golden eagle can fetch as much as a thousand bucks on the black market- but only in pieces.

The large pinion feathers on an eagle's wing can sell on the black market for $100 apiece. Breast feathers fetch $10 and eagle down is plucked and used in headdresses which, in Europe, sell for up to $85,000 to collectors.

The talons and even heads go for big money, too.

In the NPR report, the Fish and Wildlife Service special agent interviewed was asked what drives the market. What he tip-toed around, citing the international art trade and devil-worshippers before getting to the real culprits, was that the majority of the demand for eagle parts is found in Native American communities. The parts are widely used as ceremonial accoutrements.

Now, the government does provide a way for Native Americans to legally get eagle parts. It's called the National Eagle Repository. The problem is that they get 5000 requests a year for eagles and can only fill about 1000. As many tribes become increasingly prosperous off the backs of the rampantly stupid (aka gamblers), the equation simplifies. Demand for eagle parts + serious wads of cash = piles of rotting, mutilated carcasses. Golden eagles and bald eagles are classed as "threatened," meaning the increased poaching could be a quick ticket to extinction. So much for the fabled Amerindian "harmony with nature."