Hamilton Reef
03-10-2003, 01:34 PM
PRISONERS NURTURE BABY PHEASANTS
Joyce Kryszak March 10, 2003
Hunting season for pheasants in most areas doesn't begin until fall. But the work begins now to make sure there are plenty of pheasants available when the season starts. One state's environmental conservation program makes pheasant chicks available to anyone who wants to raise them for later release. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium's Joyce Kryszak has more on the program's rather unusual partner:
There are plenty of people you'd expect who are interested in raising the baby pheasants. Farmers, hunters, 4-H club kids and wildlife lovers, certainly. But for the last two years, the program has gotten a lot of help from... Attica prisoners. Inmates at the upstate New York correctional facility raise a couple thousand of the chicks each year. James Snider is a state wildlife biologist. He says, hardened criminals or not, they're giving these baby birds lots of TLC.
"Basically you're taking a day old chick, which was hatched the day before, out of an incubator, brought in and certainly you know, those first two or three weeks some of the critical things are keeping them warm, because they don't have a mother to take care of them. You know, it's a continuation of food and water all the way up until finally they grow their adult flight feathers.
Snider says it's also a beneficial program for the prisoners, who take a lot of pride from their role as nurturers.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I'm Joyce Kryszak.
Joyce Kryszak March 10, 2003
Hunting season for pheasants in most areas doesn't begin until fall. But the work begins now to make sure there are plenty of pheasants available when the season starts. One state's environmental conservation program makes pheasant chicks available to anyone who wants to raise them for later release. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium's Joyce Kryszak has more on the program's rather unusual partner:
There are plenty of people you'd expect who are interested in raising the baby pheasants. Farmers, hunters, 4-H club kids and wildlife lovers, certainly. But for the last two years, the program has gotten a lot of help from... Attica prisoners. Inmates at the upstate New York correctional facility raise a couple thousand of the chicks each year. James Snider is a state wildlife biologist. He says, hardened criminals or not, they're giving these baby birds lots of TLC.
"Basically you're taking a day old chick, which was hatched the day before, out of an incubator, brought in and certainly you know, those first two or three weeks some of the critical things are keeping them warm, because they don't have a mother to take care of them. You know, it's a continuation of food and water all the way up until finally they grow their adult flight feathers.
Snider says it's also a beneficial program for the prisoners, who take a lot of pride from their role as nurturers.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I'm Joyce Kryszak.