Wildlife law-enforcement officers say eagle killings are on the rise, and they need citizens’ help to catch the killers.

The growing problem made international headlines in February, when officials of the Burrard Indian Band discovered 40 bald eagle carcasses in a shallow grave on their reserve in British Columbia.

The birds’ legs had been cut off, along with feathers. Law-enforcement officials speculate that the killers intended to sell the feathers and talons.

Meanwhile, there are at least seven active cases involving eagle killings in Missouri.

The first case involved a bald eagle found Jan. 2 just outside Ellington in Reynolds County. Conservation Agent Preston Mabry said the bird’s carcass was hanging on a state highway sign.

On Jan. 5, Pulaski County Conservation Agents Casey Simmons and Aaron Pondrom investigated a citizen report and found a bald eagle that had been shot and killed near Dixon.

In mid-January, Conservation Agent Randy Geise received reports of two eagles killed in Gasconade County.

Also in January, Special Agent Dan Burleson with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service received a report of an eagle killed on the Mississippi River north of St. Louis.

On Feb. 6, another bald eagle was found shot dead in Pulaski County near Hancock. In early February, a hunter looking for shed deer antlers in Laclede County discovered a golden eagle that appeared to have been dead for a week or so.

A bald eagle uses its wings for balance as it slides while landing on the ice-covered backwaters of the Mississippi River last week near Savanna, Ill.

State officials said the bird died within a few miles of a site where workers fighting a forest fire last fall found two golden eagles and a bald eagle dead. Evidence suggested those birds might have succumbed to poisoning.

“It seems like the number of eagles killed is going up and up every year,” Burleson said. “In part, it’s related to the recovery of eagles nationwide. Bald eagles are coming back from near extinction, and as their numbers increase, there is more opportunity for the lower element of society to kill them.”

Dennis Steward, Protection Division administrator for the Conservation Department, said most eagle killings here were opportunistic, pointless acts.

“When we solve a case, it almost always involves somebody who just happened to come across an eagle and shot it,” Steward said. “There is no legal game that looks like an eagle, so the excuse of mistaking an eagle for something else is bunk. It’s senseless killing — the worst kind of ignorant vandalism.”

Killing eagles is against both state and federal law. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Conservation Federation of Missouri each offer cash rewards of up to $1,000 for tips that lead to arrests of eagle killers.