Archive - Monday, 5 January 2004


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Colchester: Bird hunt ruffles owner's feathers

A fugitive falcon which went on the run has found itself at the centre of a bizarre legal wrangle.

Beauty, a four-year-old harris hawk, escaped from her aviary in Colchester a week before Christmas.

She is still at large - despite frantic attempts to catch her.

Owner Richard Wiper says Beauty is living in the old Severalls hospital site, but bids to capture her are being hampered by red tape.

The falconer says he has been warned he could be arrested for trespassing if he tries to get her.

But he also faces legal action if he doesn't recage her - for releasing a foreign animal into the wild.

He said: "It's so frustrating. I know where she is but I'm not legally allowed to get her. "At the same time, I am legally obliged to catch her. The law is a mess."

A spokesman for the North-East Essex Mental Health Trust, which owns Severalls, said the derelict site was too dangerous to let the birdman on unescorted.

Published Monday January 5, 2004

Brought to you by the Evening Gazette