Man faces $19,500 fine for assault on eagle

BERLIN – A German appellate court in Stuttgart proposed a $19,500 fine Tuesday against a 70-year-old man who fatally beat an escaped golden eagle with his walking stick after it attacked his dachshund.

The court agreed with a lower court’s decision that a wildlife center that let the eagle escape was partly responsible, but it attributed even more blame to the pensioner, more than doubling his penalty.

The court will hand down a decision on Feb. 23 if the parties do not agree to the proposed settlement.

The man was walking with his wife and leashed dog in the town of Siegelsbach in October 2005 when a passer-by told him the eagle – recently escaped from the center – was nearby. The man then approached the eagle.

When the eagle attacked the dachshund, the man hit it with his walking stick two to three times, he told the appellate court. The blows broke a wing and several bones of the bird, which died a few days later.

The 19-year-old male bird was to play a prominent role in the wildlife center’s proposed breeding program.