Posted : Wednesday Sep 22, 2010
PETERSBURG, N.Y. — An eagle rescued by Navy SEALS after it was wounded on a firing range in Afghanistan is getting a new home at a bird sanctuary in upstate New York.
Sen. Charles Schumer says federal officials agreed to let "Mitch the Eagle" into the U.S. as a special case despite a ban on importing birds from Afghanistan because of avian flu fears. Mitch will get to America in early October and undergo tests before being sent to the Berkshire Bird Paradise in Petersburg, about 24 miles east of Albany.
The steppe eagle was shot in the wing by an Afghan soldier at Camp Scorpion, a training base in the southern part of the country.
SEALS on patrol saw the shooting, saved Mitch and tended to his wounds.
Schumer says Wednesday the SEALS appealed for help from the sanctuary, which contacted him.
