Originally Posted By: chris med
whole thing smells like political bullshitski if you ask me.........no offense at ALL Skip.but why couldn';t local officials"determine" it was shot????? any light on this??? Thanks bud...just want a little more input before the retirement party!!!!!grin rawk


Chris, there's a process with evidence. We knew it was shot but if the person responsible is caught and arrested, when the case goes to trial the forensic evidence is going to be the key element in the entire case. There is no forensic lab in Connecticut that can do a forensic examination on wildlife and provide expert witnesses to testify in court. If this was a sexual assault, a shooting involving a human, etc., then yes, the Connecticut State Police Forensic Lab would have handled it. But they don't do wildlife cases. They don't have the experts in animal and bird biology. The USF&W Service has the best wildlife forensic lab in the country. Because of the federal nexus of the violation we were able to use their services to conduct a full forensic exam of the bird and their experts will come here to testify in court if needed.