Hawk gets stuck on Wing
September 9, 2002 Posted: 11:55 AM EDT (1555 GMT) http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/09/09/offbeat.hawk.ap/index.html
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ARLINGTON, Washington (AP) --"Call 911! I have a hawk stuck to my arm."
It didn't take long for gas station customers to see Jamie Wing wasn't kidding.
A red-tailed hawk collided with Wing's pickup truck Thursday, and after she freed the bird's wing from the side-view mirror, the hawk invaded the truck, bit Wing's lip and then sank its talons into her right arm.
Wing, 38, said she threw a coat over the bird, tried without success to get it off her arm -- and then drove to the nearest highway exit.
"Every time you touched the bird, it gripped harder," she said. "There was a point where it got so painful that I was going to reach down and break its neck myself, but I love animals and I realized the bird was in shock and pain."
Firefighters administered morphine to help ease Wing's pain, and two women from the nearby Sarvey Wildlife Center pulled the hawk off her arm.
Wing was treated at a local hospital for puncture wounds on her right arm, hand and thumb. "I feel lucky it didn't chew me up more," she said.
The hawk had to be euthanized because both wings were broken too badly to heal or be repaired, said Kestrel SkyHawk, who cares for birds of prey at the center and is on its board of directors.
Edited by - Mister Biggs on 9 September 2002 14:17:22
Edited by - Mister Biggs on 9 September 2002 14:18:6