Care center takes injured pelican

A pelican is being nursed back to health in Huntington Beach after a 19-year-old man fishing on the Newport Pier allegedly stomped on it.

The bird, a 3-year-old male, has a horizontal hairline fracture along its beak from the incident, said Wildlife Director Debbie McGuire of the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center.

Daniel Richard Moreno, 19, a Perris resident, was fishing on the pier March 14 when the pelican swooped in to eat a fish he had caught that he set on the ground next to him, police said.

Police said Moreno stomped on the pelican’s beak, and the care center reported he also kicked it in the head.

The pelican was taken to the care center, and Moreno was arrested after someone witnessed the incident and called the authorities.

Moreno is expected to go to trial after being charged with a misdemeanor count of cruelty to animals March 16. He pleaded not guilty to the charge and faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison. His trial is expected to begin April 4.

An attorney for Moreno did not return calls seeking comment.

The pelican will make a full recovery but is expected to need four to six weeks to fully heal, McGuire said.

When the pelican first came in, it had blood on its beak, and after x-rays, it was determined the fracture was hairline.

“Is this how [Moreno] reacts to everything?” McGuire said. “He needs help.”

Although beaks aren’t bone, they are made of similar material, and the center decided to treat the injury like a bone fracture. Splints don’t work on the pelican, but it has growth plates on its beak.

McGuire said staffers are concerned it has other fractures to its clavicle or shoulder that the x-ray couldn’t pick up.

While it can flap its wings, they don’t want it to take flight yet.

“We don’t want him to fly around and bump his beak into anything,” she said.

The pelican eats about six pounds of food a day, which will cost the center more than $200 in food alone before it is better.

The court will determine if the center will be able to recoup the costs from Moreno.

Pelicans have been having a tough 2010. The center is currently housing 22 birds sick or injured birds and cared for more than 50 starving brown pelicans in the last three months.

The lack of food could cause more clashes with humans, McGuire said.

“They are just trying to survive,” she said.