California bird caretaker heartbroken over fowl play
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. --An albino raven is rare. An albino raven that can talk is even more rare.
That's why what happened to Pearl, believed to be one of the few birds of this type in the world, was heartbreaking for her handler Madena Bennett.
Bennett of Thousand Oaks, Calif., once joked that caring for the raven "was like living with a unicorn that could talk." She cares for all types of birds and animal control officials brought Pearl to her. The lack of melanin in her feathers make birds like this targets for predators, explaining why they are so rare.
Pearl was a permitted sanctuary/education animal and Bennett said only four other albino ravens exist.
But on May 13, she got out of her handler's grip and flew into some trees nearby. But that was long enough for a murder of crows to spot the bird, possibly in an attempt to defend their nests, causing Pearl to flee.
Bennett searched for days for her prized fowl, but learned that just hours after she flew off, Pearl was shot by a pellet gun near a shopping center. An animal control officer told Bennett that Pearl had been found alive, but died on the way to the veterinarian.
"I would want to know why," she tearfully told CBS Los Angeles. "Was it target practice? What? Why would you do something like that?"
Killing a bird so rare in California is a crime and Bennett has launched a campaign on Youcaring.com to try to find Pearl's assailant. "As Pearl had only ever known love and kindness from humans, she would have been an easy target for somebody with a gun and no respect for wildlife," she wrote on the website.
So far, Bennett has raised almost $2,600 of her $10,000 goal.