Afghanistan Veteran Shot Down Eagle and Set It Free

Army veteran rescues an eagle in incredible way 
KARE 
July 02, 2016

Jason Galvin said the eagle's rescue was an emotional experience.  "There was a lot of tears," he said. "When it finally came down, it was breathtaking. It was a beautiful moment."

RUSH CITY, Minn. - A army veteran of two tours in Afghanistan has again picked up a weapon on behalf of freedom.

On Thursday Jason Galvin took shots from a .22 caliber rifle to free an eagle that had become tangled in a rope, hanging upside down from a tree 75 feet off the ground.

“It was very windy and I was just waiting for the right shot,” said Galvin who spent 90 minutes firing roughly 150 shots while mowing down three branches, and finally the rope, holding up the eagle.

Other branches on the white pine and the underbrush below helped break the eagle’s fall. The bird is now recovering at the University of Minnesota Raptor Center.

“It was a good weekend for it to happen,” Galvin said. “Fourth of July, you know, that’s our bird. I can’t let it sit there.”

Galvin was on a bait run in his pickup, when he spotted the bird above a gravel road about a mile from his family's cabin, upside down and struggling. By then the eagle had already been hanging more than two days, as neighbors called the Minnesota DNR and the Rush City police and fire departments, only to be told there was nothing the agencies could do.

Galvin's wife Jackie began making calls too, with similar results. "They just couldn’t get up there high enough and they just unfortunately deemed this was going to be a loss."
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