Woman Kills a Pet Falcon with a Beaded Scarf in Order to Save a Duck

Tacky beaded scarves aren’t just a crime of fashion, apparently: in the case of an Idaho woman, they’re an accessory to murder—of a pet falcon.

A woman named Patti MacDonald—always a Patti with an ‘I,’ wearing those kinds of beaded scarves—was charged with a misdemeanor for beating an animal, after witnessing a man’s pet falcon, named Hornet, swoop down and attack a random duck (no name given), as predatory birds like falcons tend to do.

Via AP Online:

Authorities say MacDonald fractured the skull of the 8-year-old falcon named Hornet on Jan. 7. The duck also died and was being stored as evidence, Idaho Fish and Game said.

Dead duck stored as evidence = kind of gross.

Craig Walker, a regional conservation officer for Idaho Fish and Game, said he later received an anonymous call from a woman saying she tried to save a duck from a falcon. The phone system identified the caller as MacDonald.

Except it wasn’t entirely anonymous, because MacDonald told Scott Dinger, Hornet’s owner, that she’d beaten the falcon.

[Dinger] said he was about 500 yards away when Hornet made a successful attack and landed with the duck. He said he was approaching the spot then he saw a red Jeep Wrangler pull up to the side of the road, and Hornet flew away but appeared injured.

Dinger said the woman told him she beat the bird, which had been with humans since the day it was hatched.

Hornet’s owner, Scott Dinger, is understandably distraught.

“[Pet falcons] don’t really know they are falcons,” Dinger said. “That was probably a part of his undoing, because you could walk up to him and he wouldn’t fly or try to get away.”

Dinger said it was tough to accept what happened because his bird was 8 years old, and falcons can live for about 30 years when they’re with humans.

“I had planned for Hornet to live longer than me,” Dinger said.

The whole thing, frankly, is really sad…and, perhaps, a lesson in minding your own business.