'These are not mistakes.These are deliberate, and it needs to stop'
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash. -- An animal shelter on Bainbridge Island is seeing more and more animals arriving with gunshot wounds, and the shelter's director says the disturbing trend needs to stop.
Caring citizens are finding the injured animals and bringing them to the West Sound Wildlife Shelter. The facility's director, who has seen so many of the gunshot wounds, said there's no excuse to shoot an animal without a permit.
Workers at the shelter treat more than 1,000 animals each year. Their goal is to get the critters back into the wild, but animals are being dropped off with gunshot wounds.
"I guess people are just more impatient lately. For some reason they're using a gun to solve all of their problems," said shelter director Mike Pratt.
Pratt believes people in the area are using guns as a quick solution for getting rid of animals they consider a nuisance. Last year he treated more than 50 animals with gun shot wounds, compared to just one or two in past years.
"These are not mistakes," he said. "These are deliberate, and it needs to stop."
Pratt said the shooters are using all types of firearms, from pellet guns to shotguns. And he said the shootings are happening throughout the region.
Karla Freimuth spent the last month caring for an injured crow she found in her yard.
"I didn't know the extent of the damage. I thought it was just a fledgling that had hurt his wing flying too much or flew into something and might have broke it or fractured it," she said.
She brought the crow to the shelter on Tuesday and learned that it had been shot. Pratt said the bird's injuries were so bad that it had to be euthanized.
"All life is valuable whether it's a little robin or a chicken or a crow or a coon," Freimuth said.
Shelter staff are now using an injured turkey vulture to educate others about the importance of wildlife.
"These animals are living, breathing creatures. They feel pain just like we do," Pratt said.
Pratt said many of the injured animals are protected under state and federal laws.
Caring citizens are finding the injured animals and bringing them to the West Sound Wildlife Shelter. The facility's director, who has seen so many of the gunshot wounds, said there's no excuse to shoot an animal without a permit.
Workers at the shelter treat more than 1,000 animals each year. Their goal is to get the critters back into the wild, but animals are being dropped off with gunshot wounds.
"I guess people are just more impatient lately. For some reason they're using a gun to solve all of their problems," said shelter director Mike Pratt.
Pratt believes people in the area are using guns as a quick solution for getting rid of animals they consider a nuisance. Last year he treated more than 50 animals with gun shot wounds, compared to just one or two in past years.
"These are not mistakes," he said. "These are deliberate, and it needs to stop."
Pratt said the shooters are using all types of firearms, from pellet guns to shotguns. And he said the shootings are happening throughout the region.
Karla Freimuth spent the last month caring for an injured crow she found in her yard.
"I didn't know the extent of the damage. I thought it was just a fledgling that had hurt his wing flying too much or flew into something and might have broke it or fractured it," she said.
She brought the crow to the shelter on Tuesday and learned that it had been shot. Pratt said the bird's injuries were so bad that it had to be euthanized.
"All life is valuable whether it's a little robin or a chicken or a crow or a coon," Freimuth said.
Shelter staff are now using an injured turkey vulture to educate others about the importance of wildlife.
"These animals are living, breathing creatures. They feel pain just like we do," Pratt said.
Pratt said many of the injured animals are protected under state and federal laws.
""All life is valuable whether it's a little robin or a chicken or a crow or a coon," Freimuth said."
Yea, and some of it is valuable as food. Do you think that when you are sitting down to a turkey dinner or maybe a nice ham on Easter that you're a murderer? If you're a vegetarian, then say so, don't make the meat eaters of the world feel like we're eating our own children or, just as bad, your children.
And to the shooters, if you're going to shoot it - kill it. Don't wound it leaving it to suffer for however long? That's cruel and inhumane and if anyone catches you doing it, don't look for any sympathy from the public when you're held accountable!
@Joy Johnson I disagree with you. Sure, we don't want to see any animal suffer; but to give "permission" to these shooters to kill, will be interpreted as, "Killing animals is okay so long as you do it efficiently." Your advice should be, "Don't kill an innocent animal." If someone is killing for food, then that's totally different.
@Koawoodplayer @Joy Johnson My issue was with the statement that all life is valuable whether it's a little robin or A CHICKEN. I eat chicken. I like chicken. But the shooting is disturbing to me on a different level as well. Discharging a firearm where there may be people around that the shooter can't see, that bothers me.  I don't like seeing animals suffer, that bothers me. Shooting them should only be a self protection measure (or grudgingly a hunter for food), not just because they bother your peace and quiet, or just because you can. My son lives in an area where cougars are spotted all the time. He doesn't shoot at them, not even to scare them off. But if one approaches his house or his children, you can bet he's going to shoot it. Bears? Same thing. You can't ask them to move along. They see you as food, and that's what you'll be if you don't either get away or kill them first. I hate the idea myself, but as long as people insist on living where wild creatures live there's going to be times when lethal measure are warranted. So, if that's the case, finish it, don't leave them to suffer for days!  Shooting a crow is just a nuisance shot or prank. Crows don't bother anyone, except their infernal crowing constantly early in the morning. They aren't a good food source. So, this particular incident was uncalled for. But don't lump chicken (or ham, or beef, or pork) into the "life is valuable" debate... please. Until we all become fruitopians, agrarians or vegetarians, there's nothing wrong with a little A-1 on your steak!
lady was that upset over a crow??? you've got to be kidding me... those nasty birds are everywhereee. I'm totally against people just shooting animals for fun, but if you guys havent been to Bainbridge there are birds/raccoons/coyotes/deer seriously everywhere with all the wooded areas, they are literally taking over and destroying property at times. And residents do have the rights to protect thier property from nuisance animals with the correct permits.. Typical Bainbridge Islanders over-reacting for you hahaha Â
@michellynn369 Are you for real? Humans are the greatest threat and enemy to any animal that exists. Humans have taken over the "property" of animals. If anything, we should be worried about these shooters. If they are doing these shootings for kicks and laughs, then society has a bigger problem than a flock of crows in your yard would ever cause.
@michellynn369Â Yep, the animals are taking over and destroying property. Â Because we never took anything or destroyed their ability to live? Â Seriously, everywhere in the wooded areas? Â Why cant they just buy houses and understand where their property lines are? Â Typical selfish nuisance to the human population. hahahaha
Just shoot the pit bulls.
OMG! Some peoples posts here think I was saying that this is a form of good pest control!!?? Apparently did not get my sarcasm!! And PS KOMO: this new platform is flawed.
Why-are-existing-Lawâs-NOT-being-enforced?
In Washington state, it is legal to shoot crows in the act of deprivation. So, no laws were broken. None needed enforcing.
because BIPD are corrupt jerks who are more worried about nailing people with speeding tickets and such...
People are doing pest control with guns now...Great. Someone is going to accidentally hit their neighbor's kid out playing in their own yard. We do live in a disposable society and a very IRRESPONSIBLE one too. These poor critters. All this crap we are doing is going to come back and haunt us some day.....
@My-celiumsÂ
It is not pest controlâ¦..
Keep the animals off other peoples property.Â
They have a RIGHT to shoot.Â
My dog was shot at several times wondering to the neighbors property.
@lavaGÂ
...way to be responsible.
Torturing animals is just a start of these real sick people.... once they learn to devalue animals they will eventually devalue other people as well and you know what... we will have et another nut job out there thinking it is their person position in life to dispatch justice... People who do this need to be punished just like they committed the crime against a human...we have no use for people as sick and twisted as this!
I am extremely disappointed in my hometown. It is the result of human encroachment that animals feel the increasing need to come onto our land and attempt to share our resources; they have very limited habitat, especially on an island. There are better ways to deal with "nuisance" animals - shooting innocent creatures is not the answer.
I have to admit I've save quite a few small animals and birds for the same reason that I hate to see them suffering. What's the difference between you suffering in pain from a gunshot wound and it suffering in pain from a gunshot wound? Pain is pain.
Tastes like chikon.
Every day the news up here reminds me of what a backwoods, trailer park, State this is. Â Cannot wait to leave.Â
@DTÂ Unfortunately, I dont think you are going to find a better place to live. Â We just need to help make change, here. Â We cant just move every time we dont like something. Â But I agree, these people are uneducated about wildlife and lack human empathy for other living creatures. Â Sad.
This comment has been deleted
@KOMO_Sapiens @DT also remove "US" from your post.  YOU are the only one who thinks this.
@KOMO_Sapiens @DT , You just proved her point.  And who cares if she is a "slut"?  The word slut is a word you must find powerful because you choose to post it.  However I hope she lives her life anyway she wishes!!  Good for her!!
@DTÂ
Bye  Bye
@DTÂ
Bye Bye
@DTÂ Good luck finding a state that is not like that...one doesn't exist. Â There are good and bad people everywhere. Â Read stories around the world, bears who are caged and tortured for their bile in China, the Taliban testing explosives and gas on dogs, bullfighting, etc. Â
 @DT It doesn't matter where you go DT. You'll STILL be miserable and think the whole world sucks. Good luck on finding Nirvana, and I hope you do it SOON.
 @DT Yes, we can't wait for that, too. Go back to wherever your nose won't mind the change in altitude from your neck.
 @DT You must not have been to Mississippi before.
 @DT - so I guess you're leaving for Heaven?  Because if it's anywhere else here on earth, it's earth after all.
 @DT Don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out. I've seen your other comments where you call Washington a backwoods redneck state. Well sugar pie you live here too so I guess that makes you as much trailer trash as the rest of us.
 @DT Compared to?
@DT, Bu-by!!
I only kill what I eat. Would never shoot a cat or a dog unless it was threatening other animals on the property. Would love to have a couple of feral cats around the neighborhood to keep the rat population down. Cars seem to be doing a good job of keeping the possum population down and my dogs take care of the rest along with some too nosy raccoons.
@Blindman Why did the Chicken cross the road?
To prove to the possum that it CAN be done.
@domino @Blindman .... never heard that one....
We have a multitude of animals on our 23 acres and the only ones that concern me are the feral cats from the neighbor's property and opossums. Feral cats hunt everything, song birds, mice, voles, rabbits, anything smaller than they are. That takes food away from the native predators, like the weasel, hawks, and coyotes. The opossums aren't welcome because they are carriers of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, AKA EPM, that is a neurological disease in horses that is often fatal and we have horses. Not only that but because the opossum isn't native the ground nesting song birds are at great risk from them. So, I trap feral cats and opossums with live traps and take them to a place where they can be disposed of. I would never shoot at native animals unless they were attacking our horses or dogs. Remember a lot of the folks that are injuring these animals could well have concealed weapons permits. Having a permit doesn't make someone a responsible gun owner.
@jcman
Why-are-existing-Lawâs-NOT-being-enforced?
@lavaGÂ @jcman Can you say, "Not enough money to hire enough law enforcement and prosecuting attorneys?"
@jcman That was a very pathetic  attempt to demonize people with CC permits. Highly unlikely it is someone with a CC, I've never heard such a ludicrous statement.  People who get CC permits  are the responsible gun owners.  Law enforcement gets all their info when they get the permit, they're not going to turn around and commit a crime, like randomly shooting animals,  and risk losing their weapon and permit that they most likely have for protection.
Cats are also prey. Hawks, eagles, owls and coyotes can and do eat cats. The eagles and hawks also eat more songbirds, including ground nesters, than cats could ever hope for. The impact of cats on the songbird population is highly exaggerated.
Rather than get rid of the opossums, vaccinate your horses, Rabies, West Nile and west/east encephalitis are all available for horses. I've never heard of someone who tries to single out certain species of animals to protect their horses, it's impossible. Everyone I know with horses vaccinates them just like they do their dogs and cats.
There are an estimated 70 million cats in the US. If just half of them killed a bird once a week that would be almost 2 billion birds killed each year. Over the millenia birds have developed methods to protect themselves from other predators, like the way they situate their nests or having their eyes set in their heads to see overhead when eating on the ground, or massing flocks when hawks show up (I've seen that with tree swallows). They haven't developed those defenses against cats or opossums in areas where opossums aren't native. Cats are just killing machines. They don't eat everything they kill. Their instinct is to go after anything smaller than them and kill it whether they are hungry or not. Native predators keep things in balance and kill for food. Maybe we need to encourage more coyotes in urban areas to reduce the number of roaming cats since people (who are supposed to be responsible for them) aren't willing to keep their cats inside or just turn them loose to reproduce into feral colonies.
@jcman A lot of guessing and estimation. Yes, cats are predators, so? I think your analysis is as ridiculous as what you said about CC holders.  I think you just don't like cats. I live where there are eagles hawks and owls, and I can tell you they eat little songbirds like candy. They also eat feral cats, which we have no shortage of. You are worried a cat MIGHT eat a bird in a week? An eagle can gobble several in an hour. We have a resident hawk on our property that sits in our young stand of firs and picks off the ground nesters every chance he gets. So do our dogs. And yet we have a large thriving songbird population on our property, and surrounding area, about 29 different species we've tracked so far. You should research how how large agriculture farms rid their property of small birds that eat their crops. They catch them in huge nets then burn them, and also poison them. There is no way the small bird population can be accurately tracked, much less how many were eaten by cats or other predators. That is a story that the environmentalists are pushing. I've yet to see any hard evidence.Â
@Mazy@jcmanNot all CC people, just some that are idiots, just like there a lots of stupid people in the population. We vaccinate our horses but there is no vaccine for EPM. It's a protozoa that causes the disease, opossums are the only known vector. For a while there was concern that cats might be vectors but that was finally proved to be incorrect. Why do you think there has been such a problem developing a vaccine for malaria? It also is caused by a protozoa.
@jcman @Mazy How do you know anything about which CC carriers are responsible or otherwise, did you do a study? I know several CC holders and they're very safety conscious and responsible. You seem to make a lot of generalizations here with no basis.
You are wrong, there is an EPM vaccine for horses. Also, some vaccines, like for dogs and cats, aren't developed because the need for them is so minimal.Â
@jcman So, you trap feral cats and opossums with live traps and take them to a place where they can be disposed of.
And, WHERE might that be?
@Changehappens..... @jcman Thurston County Joint Animal Services.
@jcman You don't believe that keeping the vermin populations (rats, mice, other rodent varieties and rabbits) under control is a good thing? Preditors eating prey is a pretty natural function. I do sympathinze about the little birds but Nature was designed to work that way.
@domino @jcman Predators eating prey is natural if the predator is natural, however cats aren't natural. They are an imported invasive species, as are opossums in this part of the country. It has been estimated that feral and outside house cats kill over 3 billion birds a year.
 @jcman There were some dogs running lose on private property in Eastern WA where I go deer hunting. They were chasing deer. The local sheriff was called by the owners because some hunters had threatened to shoot the dogs if they were seen chasing deer again. The sheriff said "if you see them chasing deer, put 'em down and call me to cite the owner for failing to control his animals." We haven't had problems with those dogs since. The owners, either.
@RN1Â @jcmanÂ
Good
Love dogs â have had only three during our 32 year marriage and have only been dog-less for two of those years. They all became a viable part of the family. I stopped hunting when I came back from Nam â just didnât seem important somehow. Having said both statements, I will shoot any uncontrolled pack of dogs in a heartbeat. They are one of the few living things that kill strictly for the sake of killing â not because they are hungry.
Â
Am glad your situation worked out by conversation.
@Robinsnest
I hear you and understand (and until Iâm told otherwise, I do the same) â although even though my Father passed in â85 - HE is the âSirâ in our familyâ¦.. at least when I hear that term used around me.
Always better to pay rent to yourselves (your future mortgage) than to others. Good luck â I was a 2nd class at the time â talking about squeaking byâ¦
Since you are not happy with the local political atmosphere and youâve lived here before then I bless you twice as much to be returning to help combat King County votersâ¦Am very tired of one county speaking for the entire state, right, wrong or indifferent. d2 for short (Star Wars fan..)
@commonsense @Learning64 You don't have to tell me.... I've been killing those cows at Safeway for several decades......
@dome200q Enlisted or Officer, every man deserves to be called "sir". I don't bother with looking at rank when I am talking to a service member. To me they are ALL sir or ma'am. I know what you mean about having to buy because no one will rent with animals. We brought our 2 cats to SC over 2 years ago and will be bringing them back to Wa in 4 months. We'll be buying too and will never give them away. Driving cross country with 3 kids(we have 4 but oldest is married in Wa now), luggage, 2 cats AND a cat box in the back of the van was challenging but we did it and will do it again. Thanks, we look forward to getting back to Wa. We call it home although we are not too keen on the political atmosphere but will make the best of it as we always do.
@Learning64 @dome200q If you eat and use what you hunt, it's not killing for the sake of killing. It's no different than ripping into that package of chicken you bought at the grocery store, except that someone else had to kill the chicken for you.
@Robinsnest
Not âsirâ â was enlistedâ¦â¦ BTDT with housingâ¦. when we PCSâd here to Whidbey â Wife was 8 ½ months pregnant, had a 10 lbs. tabby and a 67 lbs. German Shepard in the backseat of our carâ¦.. couldnât find a place to rent, WOULDNâT give away the animals. Bought house instead.
Â
I donât know if things have changed now with all of these animal âwhisperersâ, but my hillbilly Dad taught me that once a dog got a taste of feral life style, of pack killings, they canât be untrained.
Â
And Learning64, if you are reading this, my Dad had to hunt as a boy to help put food on the table. Things were so tight for them that if he left the house with ten rounds, heâd better return with squirrels and bullets that added up to ten, or get a belt.
And Robinsnest, (and family) welcome back.
@Learning64 Since I prefaced that statement with â and I quote â âThey are one of the few living thingsâ â unquote, just what did I forget?
Â
On top of that, you are mistaken about hunting, or rather, just sort of left out the other definitions associated with that word: for FOOD and for TRADE.
@dome200q Thank you for your service sir. We have 2 cats because that is the limit on what military housing will allow at this time. However we are transferring back to Wa in June(we call Wa home) and the kids and hubby want a dog again so we are looking to buy a home with land. Dogs are the most loyal pets(more like family to us) anyone can have but I agree with you on the killing for killing sake. If they become wild and run with packs that kill, they are no longer pets and need to be humanely put down(one shot is humane to me as long as it's a good shot).
@dome200q I think you are forgetting that humans, too, kill for the sake of killing.  An example is hunting.
 @dome200q Yup, I'm a dog owner, too. Rescued strays from the pound, mostly. Grew up with them, too. Yes, they are family. But like ANY family member, they must be controlled, either by themselves, or by others, so we take care of them properly. And yes, I'm glad the sheriff was called, and it was settled without any violence, as it should be.
 @jcman "Disposed of"?
 @belsnickles  @jcman Humanely euthanized.