FARMER WHO SKEWERED FALCON SUED BY MAN WHO OWNED BIRD

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 23, 1993                   TAG: 9301230190
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: LEESBURG                                LENGTH: Short
FARMER WHO SKEWERED FALCON SUED BY MAN WHO OWNED BIRD
A farmer who skewered a falcon with a pitchfork after finding the bird in his chicken coop is being sued by the falcon's owner.
"It's like losing a member of your family," Craig Koppie of Centreville said. "She was properly trained, and she didn't deserve this kind of death at all."
Koppie has filed a suit against Carl Erickson in Loudoun County Circuit Court. The case was to have been heard Thursday, but it was postponed until Aug. 26.
A licensed falconer who works for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Koppie is seeking $16,000 in damages and costs. His lawsuit says Erickson acted with negligence and indifference in killing the bird.
Erickson's attorney, Norman A. West, said his client did what he had to when he found the 2 1/2-pound falcon flapping around inside his chicken coop. - Associated Press

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB