Service Apologizes for Citation

Little girl saves a bird from her cat, and you send her a fine for $535.

The federal government is trying to cut costs, so I am going to suggest they start with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

I don't like the way you're abusing our tax dollars!

So the lady who knew the ticket had been issued erroneously went ahead and served the summons even though she knew it was an "error?" Shyeah--riiiiiight. This is just CYA time from the government again. It gets public and then it's time to try to wiggle your way out. If this hadn't been in the paper, this would have probably gone through without a hitch and this lady would have had to pay $535.

It is a shame that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services destroyed the dream of a young, aspiring American girl. Declaring that the citation should never had been sent demonstrates the flawed process of the Servicec to control the issue of the regretful citation. Failure to control the process demonstrates Director Ashe's inability to oversee process as simple as defining an inquiry and a true violation. Director Ashe's mismanagement of this event should be reversed by Director Ashe paying for a scholarship for young Miss Capo to realize her dream of becoming a veternarian. It is a dissappointment to not only the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services that this incident ever occurred, but a deeper embarrassment if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fails to demonstrate its remorse for issuing the citation without some compensation to Miss Capo.

Someone is lying.. it was not inadvertent, but once there was an uproar, then came CYA ..

Bureaucrats just have no common sense

This is exactly why we need to reduce the size and scope of the federal government...Mr. Jefferrson, Adams, et al just rolled over in their collective graves

It's nice to see at least one of our American agencies doing the right thing. Thank you U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Just one more example of stupid govt actions. Didn't the agent who served the citation question it's validity?

Frankly, this is a horrible mess. When I, as an average citizen, read about an incident like this - any good the Fish and Wildlife service might actually do - is negated. What makes me really angry is the utter lack of common-sense in this situation. Apologies are fine, but this should never have happened in the first place. So how are you, as a department, going to put a stop to harassing the average American citizen?

Your Department should be disbanded. You provided the proof.

I will be writing to Congress to demand that your budget be cut by at least 50%.

Good job on retracting the fine, but you should go further and tell the public that the FWS agent in the retail store is going to be reprimanded for abusing her authority.The goal of the FWS is to protect our native species. This mother and her daughter obviousy had no malicious or selfish intent, so its ridiculous that they were treated as if they posed a serious threat to the woodpecker population.Your employees should understand their role as public servants, and go out of their way to SERVE the public (through education and friendly communication) before resorting to heavyhanded punishment or state troopers knocking on someones door.It's not enough to say, after all this attention, that it was a "mistake". Tell us that it's not your policy to punish children for being kind to animals, and that if this situation were repeated the FWS employee would act differently. If you don't, the public is just going to chalk up the FWS as another out-of-touch agency not worth trusting.

A perfect place to begin cutting wasteful government spending. Eliminate this agency (follwed by the Dept. of Education, Dept. of Energy and other useless federal agencies that contribute nothing to the benefit of our country, but consume enormous taxpayer recources)

Are You and the EPA in a contest to see who can spend the most tax dollars with the most agregious results?

I'd like to believe that this really was just an error, but if that's true, why did the same agent show up at the woman's door with a state trooper? Something doesn't add up here! However, I'm glad the citation was canceled. That was the right thing to do.

Fish and Wildlife have more sense

In summary...

Let the cat eat the baby bird, next time.

Hey, mistakes happen. At least the mea culpa has been issued. Try to find other gov agencies admitting to their mistakes. Good on the FWS for owning up to a bad move, and may this inform their future decisions and philosophies. We are not here to be abused by government.

Clearly this is a mistake. The citation should have been presented to the family cat. He's the real culprit in this situation.

What an impressive use of tax dollars. What other tyranny is this agency involved in that didn't make the news?

Cut government spending , starting with this agency. I keep hearing stories from across the country about good people being punished for the love of an obscure frog, fish or some such thing. And one other thing... I bet if we started looking at trees as a crop, we would find a way to cut down on forest fires.

Thank you fish and wildlife for doing the right thing. Other like-minded agencies should take notice. People need to interact with our wildlife and help when called for, without worrying; helping wildlife is real life. Policy makers should make note of this and rewrite the laws to account for this, so that there is no more confusion for agents.

"We apologize to the Capo family for the actions of our law enforcement agents."

Should read, "Agent!"

The ticket was warranted. It sounds like the lady was either married to a laywer or was well connected. I see these cases all the time and never once ever seen USFW issue an apology. She must have been related to Obama.