{"id":576694,"date":"2026-04-02T04:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T04:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/576694\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T04:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T04:55:10","slug":"driver-spots-majestic-animal-sleeping-by-the-road-then-realizes-shes-in-trouble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/576694\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver Spots Majestic Animal ‘Sleeping’ By The Road \u2014 Then Realizes She’s In Trouble"},"content":{"rendered":"

Normally, seeing a bald eagle in the wild is an awe-inspiring experience. But the other day in Wallkill, New York, a man spotted one of the majestic birds curled up on the ground on the side of the road and knew immediately that something was wrong.<\/p>\n

The man called Dave Loverde, owner of Friends of the Feathered and Furry Wildlife Center<\/a> (FFF Wildlife Center), for help. When the rescuer arrived, he found the eagle fast asleep right next to the busy street.<\/p>\n

FFF Wildlife Center<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s extremely unusual for an eagle that big to be on the ground and sleeping right next to a road,\u201d Loverde told The Dodo. \u201cAs soon as I saw that, I knew she was in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loverde instantly suspected that the lethargic animal was suffering from lead and rodenticide poisoning. Eagles typically sleep in the safety of tall trees, but the toxin had compromised the bird\u2019s nervous system, leaving her disoriented.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith lead poisoning \u2026 the first thing that goes is their peripheral vision,\u201d Loverde said. \u201cSo that\u2019s why she was on the ground, because she was afraid to fly and really couldn\u2019t see what she was flying into.\u201d<\/p>\n

FFF Wildlife Center<\/p>\n

The eagle was so out of it that she didn\u2019t even protest as Loverde trapped her in his net. Back at the FFF Wildlife Center facility, a test confirmed that the eagle had elevated lead levels in her blood, the result of her eating an animal with a bullet in their body.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was dangerously close to dying,\u201d Loverde said.<\/p>\n

The care team at FFF Wildlife Center got the eagle started on a treatment that helped reduce the level of poisons in her bloodstream. It\u2019s now been 10 days since the eagle arrived at the rescue center, and she\u2019s already doing much better.<\/p>\n

FFF Wildlife Center<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s doing really well,\u201d Loverde said. \u201cI put her in a cage outside and she\u2019s flying around like crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, FFF Wildlife Center sees dozens of cases of wildlife poisoned by rodenticide every year. The good news is that saving these animals\u2019 lives is as simple as avoiding the use of these substances.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can help protect wildlife by ditching the rat poison,\u201d FFF Wildlife Center wrote on Instagram. \u201cThese toxins cause internal bleeding in rodents, but they also harm eagles, owls, hawks, and other animals that eat the poisoned rodents.\u201d<\/p>\n

FFF Wildlife Center<\/p>\n

Once the eagle is feeling a bit better, she will be transferred to a flight cage so she can get her strength up. Before long, she will be released back into the wild, where she\u2019ll get to spread her wings and fly free.<\/p>\n

If you’d like to support FFF Wildlife Center, you can make a donation here<\/a>.\"Flightless<\/a>Flightless Eagle ‘Stumbles’ Through The Woods Until A Pair Of Heroes Arrive\u201cOur rehabilitator feared the worst \u2026\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Normally, seeing a bald eagle in the wild is an awe-inspiring experience. But the other day in Wallkill,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[16330,126823,49,48,6586,66,2225,6584,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-576694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-alana-francis-crow","9":"tag-bald-eagle","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-daily-dodo","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-standard","15":"tag-the-dodo","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}