Eagle survives weeks in rabbit trap

ADELAIDE, Australia, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Fauna Rescue in Australia said it has released a female wedge-tailed eagle that spent as long as two weeks with her foot stuck in a steel rabbit trap.

Volunteer Kerry Colmer told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. the eagle has returned to her nest that has a surviving chick in it.

Colmer said when the eagle was discovered at Mannum in eastern South Australia rescuers feared she would have to be euthanized.

"She was very dehydrated and starved and we think from the state she was in and the state of her foot that she had been in that trap for 10 to 14 days," Colmer said. "We were thinking at the time, this animal is unfortunately going to have to be euthanized."

Colmer said the incident illustrates the cruelty of using steel traps which are illegal.

"The pain that she must have been in, this gruesome trap stuck to her foot; it was just really quite distressing," she said.