BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. (WSVN) — Two dozen brown pelicans were hospitalized over the past two weeks and many did not survive, leading wildlife officials to investigate this unusual series of events in Brevard County.
Brown pelicans have been washing ashore with broken wings from Cocoa Beach to Sebastian Inlet.
“So with the number that we were seeing and the types of fractures that we were seeing all in the same location, we became suspicious that there might be some sort of unnatural process, potentially humans, you know, being involved,” said Dr. April Geer with the Florida Wildlife Hospital.
The non-profit hospital is nursing three brown pelicans with injured wings back to health and hopes to release them soon.
Most of them had to be euthanized due to the severity of the fractures. The hospital said many of the pelicans that washed up were already dead.
“We’re in this business because we love animals and want to help them,” said Tracy Frampton, Executive Director at Florida Wildlife Hospital & Sanctuary, Inc., “And it gets a little sad when the only way to really help most of these animals is to humanely euthanize them because they’re suffering.”
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is also investigating the reports.
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