Preface: I'm not making any associations to anyone with Tom Cullen, I'm merely trying to point out that not because someone has a licence and a great reputation that you should blindly and mindlessly put all trust in them. I met Tom Cullen back in 2002 when Palemale Jr. was attempting to build his second nest on a naked I-beam on the Time Warner Center which was then under construction. I was very happy to have made a friend who had so much authority with raptors. He was a trusted Central Park employee at the time. "I want to know where all the nesting hawks are..." he told me. Before I heard about the stuff below I watched Tom and his crew at my first visit to the Central Park 'Falconry Extravaganza' and that is where I got turned off from him--by the way they handled those innocent animals--I watched those poor falcons and hawks and owls tied up with bells on their feet--it was a bonafide circus. Bird Expert Faces Charges In Bald Eagle's Death Posted by admin on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 @ 06:04:00 The state has charged a bird expert who worked for the developer of a proposed billion-dollar waterfront redevelopment project with harassment in connection with the death of a bald eagle chick on Petty's Island in June. The Department of Environmental Protection confirmed Monday that it filed a letter of violation charging Tom Cullen, a consultant from Goshen, N.Y., with harassing an endangered species. The eagle was found June 10 limping on the side of a road with a mortal wound to its backside. Key details of the investigation are not being released, including specific allegations concerning what Cullen did to harass the eagle, because settlement negotiations are under way, DEP spokeswoman Elaine Makatura said. The charge is considered a civil offense punishable by fines, not by jail, she said. Cullen has rejected a proposed $20,000 settlement, Makatura said. "At this point, it remains unknown as to how it will be resolved," she said. The 392-acre island is at the center of a bitter redevelopment battle between the township - which envisions it as the centerpiece of a massive housing, hotel and golf complex - and environmentalists, who want it preserved. The presence of eagles could require a protective zone that could hinder development on the island and on the Pennsauken and Camden waterfront by North Carolina-based Cherokee Investment Partners. Cullen did not return calls. In a statement, Cherokee spokesman Richard Ochab said "Cherokee originally hired Tom Cullen, an independent and nationally recognized expert, to observe from off-site the natural patterns and behaviors of the birds and other wildlife of Petty's Island. Cherokee was not aware of Cullen's decision to access Petty's Island, nor were we aware of his monitoring activities on the island." The company terminated its contract with Cullen after being made aware that he went on the island, Ochab said. The island, the fourth largest in the Delaware River, is owned by CITGO Petroleum Products, which has seen its efforts to turn it into a preserve rebuffed by the state and federal governments. In April, state biologists placed a three-week-old chick from Cumberland County into a nest a pair of eagles had established on Petty's Island, hoping the eagles would raise it as their own. The Petty's Island eagles had been unable to produce a viable egg of their own. The chick was nearly its full size when it was found on the road near its nest, a festering puncture wound on its backside. It died en route to a bird rescue center. Days earlier, a volunteer nest watcher spotted a camouflaged tent near the nest, located between a bulk shipping terminal and CITGO's petroleum tank farm. Jack McCrossin, CITGO's environmental manager, was pleased with the state's action but said the company is considering filing municipal trespassing charges against Cullen and any possible associates that could be gleaned from state and federal wildlife investigations. "We believe he was not alone when he went on the island," McCrossin said. He added that state conservation officers were "upset that someone of his character would put a tent that close to the chick. Even people with little experience would know not to do that." In 2002, Cullen's efforts to restore bald eagles to New York City's Central Park ran into problems. One eagle fled the area and another was hit by a train and brought back from death on the operating table. Last year, one of his programs using falcons to control pigeons and rodents in a privately run park in the city ran into trouble when one of the birds attacked a pet Chihuahua. The dog survived. After the incident, Cullen told newspapers the bird likely mistook the Chihuahua for a rat. ******************************************************* Falconer afoul of law? Celebrated bird expert facing felony charges By Wayne A. Hall For the Times Herald-Record scribewayne@aol.com Goshen – Tom Cullen's been the darling of photo shoots and TV interviews. His birds of prey have been a smash. The slender, feisty master falconer with deep local ties – his great-grandfather was Democratic chairman of Orange County – was summoned when seagulls threatened to ground aircraft at John F. Kennedy International Airport. He brought falcons to shoo them away, making headlines. He's the guy New York City called to rid Bryant Park, behind the New York Public Library, of its annoying pigeons. Local media yukked it up when his Bryant Park hawks also attacked – but didn't harm – a woman's Chihuahua, mistaking it for a rat. When New York City officials wanted to raise threatened bald eagles in Manhattan's northern tip, near the George Washington Bridge, as a symbol of their post-Sept. 11 comeback, they called Cullen. He provided some kickoff television hoopla with a bald eagle on his arm. But now he faces professional extinction. Cullen is under federal indictment, facing felony charges of illegally importing exotic falcons in 1999 under false documentation. He faces possible prison time and fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars. He also was charged in March by New Jersey's attorney general with harassing an eaglet to death last year on behalf of a developer who was trying to assess the nesting eagle's tolerance to humans. The nest was on a hotly disputed island in the Delaware River near Camden, N.J. Developers want to build on the island, while others are pressing for a wildlife refuge. Cullen's camouflaged tent scared away the eaglet's parents from rescuing their offspring after it dropped from the nest, state investigators claim. Cullen had set up the tent to observe the nest for a potential development company called Cherokee. Cullen's lawyer, Peter Ginsberg, argues that there is no case because Cullen was simply doing his job, properly monitoring the birds. Cullen's defense includes the fact that the 392-acre island has an active oil tank farm, with tractor-trailers parked on a large lot and other human disturbances. Cullen recently said he is confident he will vindicate himself and has rebuffed a $20,000 settlement offer in the New Jersey case. The state civil charges carry a maximum fine of $40,000. Both cases against him have September appearance dates. In a past interview with the Record, Cullen said, "Anybody who knows me knows that I could never do anything to hurt birds." He wouldn't comment for this article. "I can't, my lawyer won't let me," Cullen said. Cullen's legal troubles have dredged up some past notoriety. He entered a misdemeanor guilty plea 21 years ago in Australia, admitting that he climbed up a tree to steal red-tailed cockatoo eggs for a man said to be a smuggler. That was wrong, Cullen has said, but he was in his 20s, trying to help a friend and was not involved in smuggling. He has said he went to Australia, a country where cockatoos were shot as vermin by farmers, to go bird-watching. About the same time, he was convicted in U.S. federal court of sending red-tailed hawks' eggs to friends overseas, a misdemeanor. He has said he did it as a favor, not for profit. Ask people knowledgeable about Cullen's passion – birds of prey – and you find a vigorous split in sympathies. Heinz Meng, the renowned raptor expert who teaches at SUNY New Paltz, says, "I've known him for years and years. He's a good guy and he knows how to take care of his birds. … Look, he got into trouble a long time ago and it's past, and he's doing good work now." But, in New Jersey court papers, the New Jersey Audubon Society warned Cherokee against hiring Cullen, saying he "was unsuitable for the job and was not an expert in eagle breeding." Yet Cullen was credited by New York City Parks Department officials with making their eagle project a success. Following the recent charges, Cullen has been suspended from that project without pay – $54,481 a year. Cullen has said he's someone who lands on his feet. Years ago, he came face to face with a deadly boomslang viper on a high African cliff. A friend yanked him away from the danger. Luckily Cullen fell only six feet, onto a ledge. "I could have fallen a long way," he said. **************************************************** This One’s For the Birds Posted by Peter Lattman In Manhattan yesterday, federal judge Colleen McMahon sentenced birdman Thomas Cullen to four months in prison for importing fliers and lying to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In September a jury found Cullen guilty of importing Black Sparrowhawks, a species indigenous to Africa, into the United States in violation of the Wild Bird Conservation Act. The Sparrowhawks are also protected by an international agreement known as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. (We’re not much for Black Sparrowhawks; our favorite African bird is the Hadada Ibis.) The New York Times investigated the curious Cullen last year in an article that caused his ouster as the head of a New York City Parks Department program to bring bald eagles to a city park. The story detailed Cullen’s involvement with the aviary underworld. Here’s some scrumptious detail: In 1984, Australian authorities arrested Mr. Cullen, who was carrying a hatchet, 100 feet up a tree, trying to snatch eggs from the nest of a red-tailed cockatoo. Nearby were Mr. Cullen’s accomplice and an incubator, powered by a car battery, containing 29 eggs with a black market value of $2,000 to $5,000 each. Mr. Cullen pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, and the investigation eventually encompassed dozens of arrests in an intricate network of smugglers around the globe. Cullen reportedly became enraptured with raptors as a child after seeing the 1958 Disney film “Rusty and the Falcon.”