Small dog snatched by bird of prey?

An Apalachicola man saw a bird of prey snatch a small dog.

George Meyers of Apalachicola was horrified when he saw what he described as a medium sized poodle carried off by a large bird.

Meyers said about two weeks ago, he was stopped at the traffic light on US 98 heading west and a woman was walking a small dog on a leash about 20 yards ahead on him on the sidewalk in front of the Chapman Building.

He said what he described as a chicken hawk swooped down and grabbed the dog.

“I saw her arms go up and then I looked up and I could see the bird and the leash dangling down,” he said.

Chris Beatty of the Florida Wild Mammal Association, an animal rescue shelter in Wakulla County said that in her 15 years of animal rescue, she shelter had been brought dogs grabbed by raptors about five times.

“Chihuahuas are the commonest.  Sometimes a bird will grab an animal and take it up a tree but not be able to hold onto it and drops it to the ground,” she said. “I have also had a newborn fawn snatched by an eagle.  The truth is that birds of prey will take small animals as game.”

Nature photographer and experienced birder John Spohrer said he had difficulty believing Meyers’ story. “Red-tailed hawks are what most people call chicken hawks. That would have been at about the end of the Red-tailed hawks’ migration,” he said. “The hawks follow other migrating birds south.  That’s certainly a time when a hawk might be hungry enough to take unusual prey.”

Could this explain a number of cats that have disappeared recently in the area of 10th Street?

Probably not. Spohrer and Beatty concurred that cats are more likely to be snatched by owls than hawks.