BATON ROUGE - A bald eagle had to be euthanized at the LSU Vet School Tuesday after it was found at the parish landfill in poor health and unable to be resuscitated.

"It was beautiful... it was sitting on the ground," the animal control agent who found it, Isaac Saltz, told WBRZ. "It could not fly, so I caught it and put it in a small cage and brought it to LSU."

Veterinarians said the bird's injuries were too great. It had a severely injured leg.

"The bald eagle was brought in, and its leg was injured to the point that we couldn't repair it," a school spokesperson said.

Bald eagles, an American symbol, are making their roost in the Baton Rouge area more often. A bald eagle was recorded on video flying near downtown last week and a pair have been spotted in Port Allen.

     > WATCH: WBRZ photographer records video of bald eagle flying near downtown; Click HERE

Workers at the landfill near Zachary where the injured eagle was found Tuesday said they routinely see them in the area. The landfill is like a buffet, workers joked, and said it's not unusual to see as many as four in the sky above the garbage pile.

Eagles migrate between south Louisiana and northern parts of the country, experts said.

LSU treats as many as ten to 15 wild bald eagles a year.

It's unclear how the bird found Tuesday was injured, but experts issued a reminder that eagles are protected even though they are no longer an endangered species.

"It's against the law to injure a bald eagle," the LSU Vet School spokesperson said. "But.. we have no way to know how (this) bird sustained the injury."

LSU veterinarians were not sure of the eagle’s original habitat, but said it was unlikely the bald eagle escaped its enclosure in a fit of rage a few years ago. In 2013, the zoo’s eagle escaped after it broke a hole in the mesh enclosure. It has not been found.

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