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Vandals damage facilities at The Raptors near Duncan

No birds injured during break-in at wildlife centre
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Vandals did thousands of dollars of damage to The Raptors on Herd Road in North Cowichan over the weekend. (Submitted)

No birds were injured, but several thousand dollars worth of damage was done during a break-in at The Raptors on the weekend.

Sometime overnight between Saturday, July 17 and Sunday, July 18, someone broke into the facility on Herd Road, north of Duncan, that houses and cares for birds of prey and went on a rampage.

“It was pretty upsetting to our entire team of people and the community,” said Raptors director of operations Robyn Radcliffe. “It’s a bit scary that our birds were targeted.”

The vandals left behind broken fences, damaged doors and torn netting, and left some of the aviaries open. None of the birds were hurt and all were accounted for. The birds are all allowed to fly free at times, so even if they had gotten out, they probably wouldn’t have gone far, Radcliffe noted.

The damage occurred well into the property, toward the flying field.

“They had to wander pretty far onto the property,” Radcliffe pointed out.

The incident has been reported to police, but the culprits managed to avoid security cameras, so there is little evidence to work from.

READ MORE: Missing falcon returns to Cowichan’s The Raptors



Kevin Rothbauer

About the Author: Kevin Rothbauer

Kevin Rothbauer is the sports reporter for the Cowichan Valley Citizen
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