To: Ojai Raptor Center, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW)

We are deeply grateful for Ojai Raptor Center’s support and care of Jackie, patient 26-519, for the past several weeks. We know you have and are continuing to do everything you can for her, and we stand with you in that. 

Jackie is so much more than a national symbol–she is a cherished part of our daily lives. For years, she has touched millions around the world with her strength, resilience and character. As your updates have revealed her health struggles, and it’s uncertain how much longer she will be with us, our global community shares a deep, heavy grief, even as we continue hoping for her recovery.

Should her condition lead you to end-of-life decisions, including possible euthanasia, we urge you to especially center Jackie’s dignity and honor her spirit by allowing her to experience her home habitat once more before she passes.

The skies, the lake, the air, the trees, and the mountains of Big Bear are where she and her parents made their home for so many years. It’s where she shared a deep bond with her mate Shadow for the last eight years, where she raised beautiful eaglets, and where she persevered through challenges and tragedies. 

We know state and federal regulations exist for managing wildlife and specifically bald eagles, including euthanasia and disposition of remains. We believe those can be met while also honoring Jackie’s spirit.

OUR REQUEST

Specifically, we ask that:

If you decide on euthanasia for Jackie, please allow her to experience her home habitat once more before her passing.

To do this, we urge:

Administrative Discretion: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Regional Migratory Bird Permit Office, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), in partnership with Ojai Raptor Center, to exercise their administrative discretion under Title 14 CCR § 679 and 50 C.F.R. Part 22 to grant emergency administrative dispensations for exceptional circumstances. 

Emergency Transit Exception: USFWS to authorize an emergency transit exception permitting Jackie to return to her home habitat in Big Bear Valley for peace, dignity, and closure if end-of-life decisions become necessary, rather than passing away on a clinic exam table.

Once there, allow Jackie to experience her home habitat once more. If needed, monitor to keep her safe until euthanasia needs to happen, then conduct the euthanasia in her natural environment or if not possible, in a local facility.

Cultural and Spiritual Reverence: Honoring cultural and spiritual values held by indigenous communities, especially towards eagles, by engaging with the ancestral stewards of the Big Bear Valley – the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation— for traditional blessings and ceremonial honors.

You have brought your full dedication and creative minds to her medical care. We urge you to do the same here - to imbue Jackie’s passing with the reverence with which you have cared for her. And most importantly, to give her the opportunity to come full circle in the wild where she belongs. 

By doing so, you would demonstrate for all to see what truly humane and wildlife-centered care looks like, and what it means to bring not only our full minds and science to bear, but also our whole hearts, compassion and souls. 

We deeply hope she can be given one more opportunity to be at home, to experience her final time on earth in the wild, and to pass with dignity. 

Thank you.