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Show Golden Eagle Bill Nears House Vote The House of Representatives may vote soon on a bill to amend the Bald Eagle Act of 1940 to extend the same protection to the golden eagle, according to the National Audubon Society. The pending bill, House Joint Resolution Reso-lution 489, has received a favorable favor-able committee report. The legislation has been endorsed en-dorsed by a number of conservation conserva-tion organizations including the National Audubon Society, which today released information which it said confirmed fears that the endangered bald eagle, our national emblem, is being slaughtered for the feather trade along with the similar, unprotected unpro-tected golden eagle. This occurs, according to So-:iety So-:iety President Carl W. Buch-heister, Buch-heister, because it is difficult for anyone but an expert ornithologist ornithol-ogist to tell the two species apart until the bald eagle develops its white head and tail feathers 'n its fourth year of life. Mr. Buchheister said the following facts had been provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Two residents of Cimarron, N. M., Louis Whitten, 59, and his son, Louis Arnold Whitten, 20, were fined $100 each March 12 on charges of illegal possession of bald eagle skins and feathers. The two men entered pleas of guilty before a U.S. Commissioner Commis-sioner in Santa Fe. N.M. The Whittens had been dealers In golden eagle feathers which they sold to craft hobbyists and souvenir collectors. They said they hunted eagles themselves and procured dead eagles from other hunters. Federal Game Management Agent Robert C. Kinghorn, assisted by state conservation con-servation officers, searched an automobile service station operated oper-ated by the Whittens, March 1, and seized five complete bald eagle skins, all of immature birds, and twelve separate bald eagle tails, two of which were white, indicating adult birds, and ten of immature birds. The Audubon Society president presi-dent said he had information, also provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, that a state conservation officer in Missouri had seized twelve eagle talons, identified as the feet of bald eagles, from a Laredo, Mo., man who had purchased the feet by mail from the New Mexico dealers. deal-ers. Golden eagle feathers held by the Whittens were not seized because be-cause their possession or sale is not against the law. The bill now before Congress would stop the commercialization in eagle parts and feathers, and would make it illegal for anyone to shoot or capture either bald or golden eagles except under special permit per-mit issued by the Secretary of the Interior. |