Your government dollars at work

Mother fined $535 after daughter, Skylar Capo, 11, saves endangered woodpecker from hungry cat

BY LUKAS I. ALPERT
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
Never let a good deed go unpunished.

An 11-year-old Virginia girl trying to rescue a baby woodpecker instead earned her mother a $535 fine when it turned out the bird was a protected species.

Skylar Capo saved the bird from the clutches of a cat which was about to turn the feathered friend into lunch.

"I've just always loved animals," Skylar told WUSA-TV. "I couldn't stand to watch it be eaten."

When she was unable to find the baby's mother, she asked her own mother if they could adopt the orphaned bird.

"She was just going to take care of it for a day or two, make sure it was safe and uninjured and then she was going to let it go," said Skylar's mom Alison Capo.

As they were headed home they stopped into a store and brought the bird inside where they incidentally encountered an officer from the Department of Fish & Wildlife.

The officer informed them that the bird was a protected species and it was illegal to transport it.

When they got home, Capo said they set the bird free and it flew away. They reported this to fish and wildlife, but two weeks later, the officer appeared at their door with a $535 ticket.

Capo called it absurd.

"I feel harassed and I feel angry," she said.