FRIDAY, Oct. 14, 2005 (HealthDay News) -- Mangus carefully tracks the movements of a visitor with his one good eye, his whole body rotating on his perch so the intruder is always in his line of vision.
The 2-year-old red-tailed hawk's left eye was lost after a car hit him about a year and a half ago.
It is this loss, ironically, that has cast Mangus in a new role as warrior in the fight against tobacco and other health threats.
Along with about 20 other "non-releasable" (because they've been injured or have imprinted on humans) owls, falcons and hawks, Mangus does outreach to schools and community groups in New Mexico, warning not just of the dangers of tobacco but of myriad threats to the ecosystem.
Mangus has grown accustomed to standing in front of a classroom for up to half an hour. As the kids observe and discuss him, he stands on the gloved hand of a trained handler, surveys the crowd haughtily and occasionally spreads his wings. He can fly, but, in classrooms, is restrained by leather straps. His presence, however, is a vivid reminder of the subject at hand.
"To a child, this doesn't feel like a drug intervention," said Daniel Abram, executive director of Talking Talons Youth Leadership, a nonprofit organization in Tijeras, N. M. where all the birds reside.
"What we do affects kids, sometimes directly, but we also influence risk factors. It's about kids adopting a stance of personal health," he added.
But to the New Mexico Department of Health Tobacco Use Prevention and Control (TUPAC), it feels like a drug intervention and more.
"This unique program helps the kids recognize the relationship between the environment and all living things," said Larry Elmore, program manager for New Mexico TUPAC in Albuquerque. "The animals become their teachers. Kids come to realize that the harmful effects of tobacco are far-reaching and not limited to just the tobacco user."
And the birds win their hearts, minds and bodies, one by one.
The best may have been Smokey, an American Kestrel falcon who suffered lung damage from inhaling toxic smoke and who had several of her toes burned off. She taught perhaps the most direct lesson about smoking and fires.
She has died, however, and now many of the lessons the birds impart are indirect ones, illustrations of how man's hand has warped the landscape.
Perry, a peregrine falcon, has an injured wing. The world almost lost peregrine falcons due to the pesticide DDT: It caused egg thinning which, in turn, caused eggs to break before they could hatch. Now they're on their way back.
Rapper, a Swainson's hawk, was born with a deformity leaving him unable to extend his wings. Such birth defects may or may not be due to environmental toxins.
Sometimes the hand of man is more obvious. Sonora, a Harris hawk, was taken from her nest as a fledgling and fed nothing but hamburger. Because hamburger meat has no calcium, she developed rickets and now has little flight capability.
The birds go to school once a week, often meeting with the toughest kids on campus, those in behavioral intervention programs and those who spit in the bus driver's face.
The students learn the story of each animal, who or what caused the damage and, at the same time, larger lessons about the environment and their own behavior.
"Here is this behavior [smoking], which is toxic. No animal except humans will take smoke into their lungs intentionally. Why have we developed bad habits?," Abram said.
The kids' empathy and bonding to the animals leads to other changes, Abram added. The boy who once wanted to know what would happen if he ripped a bird's head off now eagerly asks about Mini, a tiny Saw-whet owl, and even holds the bird while giving a presentation to other students.
Community-based youth empowerment programs have been shown to be highly effective in reducing tobacco use by youth, Elmore said.
Founded in 1988 by school nurse Wendy Crouch Aeshliman, Talking Talons had as its original mandate helping kids who were regulars in the nurse's office complaining of stomachaches or headaches. The birds addressed the self-esteem issues underlying the various aches and pains.
The organization grew from there and, today, reaches 350 middle-school students annually with a year-long intervention program and another 20,000 people through one-shot wildlife presentations. In 1995, the Department of Justice featured Talking Talons in its publication, Youth, Drugs and Violence, Innovative State and Local Programs.
Talking Talons' tobacco programs, which involved both cessation and prevention, are focused in Edgewood and Moriarty, communities east of Albuquerque that have disturbingly high teen smoking rates.
Smoking is presented, not just as an individual bad habit, but as an environmental issue tied in with so many other environmental catastrophes. It's just one way that humans alter the landscape, often for the worst.
Kids involved in the program produce a newsletter which details smoking-related deaths and illnesses. They meet with local legislators and right now are busily educating the community about a proposed smoking ordinance in Edgewood.
At Moriarty High School, kids caught smoking used to be suspended. Now they have to attend Talking Talons' cessation class.
More information
For more on the dangers of tobacco and smoking in youth, visit the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
