A fisherman in Florida has been deported back to Guatemala after he damaged a great white huron, a protected bird.
Edgard Valenzuela, a Guatemala national, had been fishing at Baggs Cape Florida State Park when he reportedly threw a large rock at the bird, causing it to suffer a broken wing. Per Local10:
After months of recovery from surgery, a great white heron that witnesses reported suffered a broken wing during a dispute with a fisherman was free on Thursday in Key Biscayne.
Witnesses reported Edgard Valenzuela was fishing when he threw a large rock at the wading bird on Jan. 20, at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Amanda Burke, of The Pelican Harbor Seabird Station near North Bay Village, responded to the state park and found the federally protected bird crouched in the grass, and bleeding from the right wing.
Burke reported that an X-ray later showed the bird’s wing had been fractured in two places and there was an emergency surgery on Jan. 21.
The bird was rehabilitated at the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station.
Florida, Lakeland Saddle Creek Park: A great white heron stretches its wings and flies free. (Jeff Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty)
FWC officers later arrested Valenzuela in February and prosecutors charged him with attempting to kill or wound a species designated endangered, threatened, or protected.
Though his trial was set for May 27, federal authorities deported Valenzuela back to Guatemala for being in the United States illegally.
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