Wounding Noisy Owl
Earns Man Huge Fine

PLEASANTON, Calif. — A California man has been fined $10,000, spent two days in jail, must perform 100 hours of community service and was sentenced to three years probation for using a slingshot to scare away a barn owl outside his home.

Alan Rondi, 42, was told by California Superior Court Judge Ronald Hyde that if Rondi hurt another animal, he would go to jail.

Rondi pleaded guilty to one count of cruelty to animals and a wildlife code violation in connection with using a slingshot to knock a barn owl out of a palm tree.

The Alameda County, Calif., man could have been fined as much as $25,000 for the misdemeanors.

"I did not see the owl," Rondi told the judge. "I only tried to scare it away. I'm sorry."

Liberty Matters News Service quoted Rondi as saying that the $10,000 fine might as well have been a million. Rondi, a truck driver, says he and his wife live paycheck to paycheck.

The pellet from the slingshot lodged in the owl's eye. The owl is now being cared for at a local wildlife museum.

Rondi apologized for hurting the owl and says he once tried to save a baby owl that had fallen out of the same tree.

But Rondi also expressed frustration that under California law he can do nothing about what he says is a persistent problem caused by the owls that have taken residence in a large palm tree in his backyard.

"I know they're owls," he says, "but there ought to be something legal you can do about it. There's laws out there that give animals more rights than people."