Helping Gulf's oil-soaked animals is appropriate, UC Davis expert says
A UC Davis expert has concluded in a recent paper that cleaning oil-soaked birds is the right thing to do.
** ADDS ID'S ** Audubon Nature Institute veterinarian Robert MacLean, left, and Michael Ziccardi, a veterinarian at the University of California at Davis and head of the oil spill sea turtle and marine mammal response, give antibiotics to a Kemp's ridley sea turtle on Thursday, June 10, 2010 at Audubon Aquatic Center on New Orleans' west bank. The turtle is among more than two dozen brought in covered with oil, but that has all been cleaned off _ the shell and flippers are naturally black. (AP Photo/ Janet McConnaughey )
News photos have documented the plight of brown pelicans and other water birds caught in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Typically, those birds have been cleaned by well-meaning rescuers.
But the oiled birds have made some wonder if cleaning is a vain attempt. Ornithologist Brian Sharp, who has a