Seven bald eagles arrived at the northern Wisconsin wildlife rescue center in the back of a truck, under blankets and assumed dead - or soon to be.

The birds were found scattered on the ground at a landfill near Eagle River, chunks of partially digested meat lying just outside their beaks.

It was soon learned the eagles had been feeding on cats euthanized by the Vilas County Humane Society. The pentobarbital that killed the cats quickly ravaged the eagles.

Despite the poison, the eagles were alive - just barely - when they reached the Raptor Education Group in Antigo.

Marge Gibson and her small staff worked around the clock for three days, giving the birds oxygen, moving their wings and warming them with heated blankets.

The center saved all the birds - believed to be the largest rescue of eagles poisoned by euthanized animals in the United States.

The eagles were tagged and freed by Gibson's group last June. But the case that investigated how the cats ended up in the landfill wasn't closed until this month.

Western Wisconsin U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil personally took up the investigation, not to put someone in jail but to spread the word of the danger euthanized animals present to wildlife.

"I never want to miss an opportunity to use my chair for good other than just prosecution," Vaudreuil said Monday. "I thought it was a good opportunity for a teaching moment."

Jennifer Primich, director of the Humane Society of Vilas County, will be required to perform community outreach over the next year. She must speak to shelters about properly disposing of euthanized animals. It is not a criminal matter. If Primich performs the service, she will have no record.

Primich, 37, of Phelps, did not return calls for comment.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been spreading the word about the dangers of poisoned animal carcasses since seven eagles were fatally poisoned by dead mules left to rot in Colorado in 1999.

The same kind of eagle poisoning has happened in Wisconsin before. The same humane society dumped poisoned animals at the same dump 10 years ago. That eagle poisoning led to rules requiring the Vilas County Humane Society to call the dump when euthanized animals were coming to bury them.

But last April, that didn't happen. Primich had taken over months earlier and did not know about the earlier poisoning or the protocol, said Steve Lucareli, former chairman of the humane society's board.

At least eight eagles fed on the dead cats. The nation's bird is both predator and scavenger, especially with snowpack on the ground last spring, experts said.

One of the poisoned birds was strong enough to fly away and later was found dead. The others were rushed to Gibson's center in Antigo, 90 minutes away.

Four of the birds were unconscious, with no eye movement and apparently not breathing.

"We all thought they were going to be evidence photos of dead birds and started covering them up," Gibson said.

But they picked up slight heartbeats. The conscious ones were vomiting and convulsing violently.

Gibson knew the risks of euthanized flesh to eagles. Her instructional eagle was accidentally fed a poisoned rabbit a year earlier and fell right off her perch. There is no antidote, but she nursed that eagle back to health.

Gibson and her staff put the seven eagles in boxes the size of a small refrigerator, smaller than usual rehabilitation cages, so the convulsing eagles didn't break a wing.

Gibson got inside to move their wings, hold up their heads, keep them warm and keep them breathing. She didn't sleep for two nights.

"It was a challenging situation. Adrenaline kicked in, and we responded to do what we could," said Gibson, who has run the nonprofit center with her husband for the past 23 years.

The eagles - three adults and four juveniles - steadily improved until they could be released in June.

The federal case involving Primich concluded last week. Lucareli, a former Vilas County district attorney, said he would not have imposed any consequences on Primich if the case came to him.

"It was felt they needed to make an example of someone to avoid this in the future," he said.

Tina Shaw, spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said there was no intent to hurt eagles, only a lack of communication. The service wants shelters and pet owners to understand the risk.

"It is selected as a euthanasia drug because it works really well," she said.