A bald eagle was freed from a tree by a patriotic Army veteran, who spent 90 minutes firing 150 shots into three branches ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.
A bald eagle (pictured) was freed from a tree by a patriotic Army veteran, who spent 90 minutes firing 150 shots into three tree branches
Jason Galvin (pictured), who did two tours in Afghanistan, was on a bait run when he spotted the eagle dangling upside down from a rope caught in a 75-foot tree
The eagle had been hanging in the tree for more than two days as neighbors called the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the local police and fire department but were told there was nothing the agencies could do
‘It rode in the front seat with me and the whole time his head was up and he was alert. It looked good considering it had been hanging there for two days,’ Mohs told the station.
Galvin then spent 90 minutes taking nearly 150 shots from a .22 caliber rifle ‘while mowing down three branches, and finally the rope, holding up the eagle’ (pictured). The underbrush below the tree broke the eagle’s fall
Before Galvin started shooting he ran the idea by Minnesota DNR conservation officer, Phil Mohs, who gave him the go-ahead after realizing the eagle would surely die if left in the tree anyway. Mohs placed the bird (pictured) in a kennel and took it to a rehabilitation center
A veterinarian at the University of Minnesota Raptor Center said the eagle (pictured) was eating and drinking, while its long-term prognosis was still being assessed. The eagle, now named Freedom, is estimated to be younger than five years old as it still has a mostly dark head and tail