LEAVE THAT BIRD ALONE

Man Arrested for Drunkenly Running Around Campground With Pelican

Families with children at an Idaho campground reportedly watched the whole bizarre scene unfold.

Police in Idaho have arrested a man they say was caught drunkenly running around a campground with a pelican. The Madison County Sheriff’s Department was alerted to the bizarre disturbance at the Warm Slough campground in Rexburg by a bystander who called to report that three inebriated men “had caught a pelican and were carrying it around the campground,” East Idaho News reports. Responding officers initially gave the three men a warning for harassing the bird, which is protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. But two of the men then began shouting at and “flipping off” officers, police said, and one of them was “causing a disturbance with the families and kids on the river’s edge.” That man was arrested after grabbing for an officer’s vest, resulting in charges of misdemeanor disturbing the peace and resisting or obstructing officers. It was not immediately clear if that was the same man holding the pelican.