Hagatha
 

Name: Because she’s a nasty HAG
Date in: 7/31/94
Hatched: February 1994
Gender: Female
Age at arrival: 5 months
Came from: private citizen, Marengo, Indiana

Story: Hagatha was found in March of 1994 on the property of a farmer. She was a downy chick on the ground in a heavy snow. The man who found her thought she was blind because of her cloudy eyes. He raised her in a chicken coop feeding her natural foods. As her eyes cleared up he realized she wasn’t blind and he released her. In a few weeks she was back and he placed her back in the coop, fed her up, and released her again. After her 3rd return over a period of a couple of months, he decided to keep her as a pet. His granddaughter had seen one of Raptor Rehab’s programs and knew this was illegal. She had some of our information and had the farmer contact us. Hagatha has lived with us ever since.

Due to her aggressive nature we tried to teach her to hunt and released her on a horse farm in Crestwood in April of 1995 at a weight of 4lbs 4 ozs. Within a month we received a call from a lady living 4 to 5 miles from the release site. She had a sick owl in her yard and feared it would be hit by a car and asked us to pick it up. Upon close examination (jess marks, 2 broken tail feathers) we identified the bird as Hag. She had lost approximately 50% of her body weight, proving that she is incapable of caring for herself. She will be a lifelong resident of RROKI, serving as a surrogate mother and education bird.