It's pretty self-explanatory, but this guy who apparently sees himself as some kind of Earth Warrior broke into a rehab center in Tampa, chased 8 birds (some articles say 10) out of their enclosures, and filmed the whole thing to a montage of environmental destruction. Thankfully most of the birds were recovered and they arrested him, but one bird, a one-eyed red-shouldered hawk, is still missing.

Here's the article: http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2011/.....ds--ar-261250/

Here's the Youtube video he took of himself doing it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpxX.....el_video_title

The video itself is painful to watch. The video (starting at about 25 minutes in) consists of him chasing the birds, cursing at them, threatening them, kicking them, grabbing them by their necks and throwing them outside; I'm furious!

I heard about it while volunteering Wednesday, but just now found the article about it. Also, according to our director, something similar happened to a rehab facility near Sarasota last week as well- cages broken into, birds frightened away. May have been the same incident; I'm looking for confirmation now.

Anyway- this highlights the need to educate the public about what rehab facilities do and why birds are "caged." After talking with other older volunteers, I was also surprised to discover this is more common than I thought among all kinds of rescue centers.

If you know anyone with this idiotic "save the animals from cages" mindset, please take the time to explain to them exactly how ignorant they are. If you'd like, be more polite than I can at the moment.