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Wildlife care center releases bald eagle

Tribune staff report
Lt. Pete Van Arnum released a bald eagle Sunday at Carson Pass for LTWC. Bruce Richards / Provided to the Tribune

Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care released a rehabilitated bald eagle Sunday at Carson Pass on Highway 88.

When the eagle came to the animal rehabilitation center in December, it could not hold its wing in the proper position to fly. Although X-rays determined that while the wing wasn’t broken, it would need time to heal, according to a LTWC email.

The eagle spent four months resting in a cage before volunteers began exercising it two weeks ago.



At about noon Sunday, the bird was released back into the wild at the Carson Pass vista overlooking Red Lake.

“This is one of the most amazing releases we perform,” LTWC Secretary Tom Millham wrote in an email. “The release was perfect and the bird did what we all hoped it would do, fly off into the sunset.”



According to a post on the LTWC Facebook page, about 70 people showed up to the event.

Millham and his wife, Cheryl, established the animal rehabilitation center that they run from their South Shore home, in 1978. They’ve seen about 24,000 animals come through their doors in that time, and since 2000, when LTWC became the only certified bear rehabilitation facility in California, the Millhams have cared for 52 bear cubs.


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