World Bird Sanctuary gives update on bald eagle who was shot through beak

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, Missouri has been working hard to save a bald eagle that was shot in the beak .

On Wednesday, the sanctuary gave an update on the bald eagle, saying it recently completed its third surgery last week and says so far, they are "seeing signs of healthy granulation tissue starting to fill some of the wounds"

Roger Holloway, Executive Director of the World Bird Sanctuary, spoke to KMOX last week about the bald eagle and said there was a chance the beak can grow back, depending on the damage.

"The beak of a bird grows a lot like your fingernail. If that's really damaged it won't grow back." said Holloway to KMOX.

The bald eagle is one of six birds of prey the World Bird Sanctuary is treating for gunshots wounds, which Holloway says is a high number, especially for this time of year when there's no active hunting season.

Holloway says the bird also had suffered an injury to his wing and lead poisoning, with the latter likely coming from scavenging for carcasses contaminated with lead shot.

When KMOX talked to Holloway last week, he didn't think the injury to the beak came from being shot by a hunter, with hunters are typically conservationists and wouldn't shoot at something if they weren't sure what it was.

"A lot of times this is just somebody that has a gun that just want to take a potshot at things," said Holloway.

According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, penalties for shooting a bald eagle include fines and prison time.