To Kill the National Symbol

Okay, I am one who has always touted religious freedom and the freedom for anyone to follow their spiritual practices.  I have always deadened my personal feelings towards what I think is misgivings and hypocrisy, wait, that isn't necessarily true, but I always remain respectful.
I think that if religions call for peyote or other specific drugs for ritualistic purposes, then so be it, go enjoy the higher plain, get your message.  I have always thought that as long as someone believed in something, even if it meant they didn't believe in anything (i.e. pure atheist) then they should have their freedoms and be left alone.  Let those who are lost or confused come and seek help, don't give it to them obnoxiously.
But I draw the line at being respectful when religions draw the line at common sense.
In a move that should violate every sense of national pride, The US Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a permit for a tribe in Wyoming to slaughter for their religious purposes two beautiful Bald Eagles.  Birds that are so majestic in their appearance, so powerful in flight, so unlike most other eagles, that they are rightly held up high on pedestals, crowing the tops of totems, rightly a part of Native American tradition.
I object not to the religious aspect, rather to the needless slaughter when in the US repositories there are plenty of feathers and carcasses for the tribes to apply for.
I don't care if the symbol is no longer endangered.  Allowing even the occasional permit is wrong. This is a bird who we have thought for decades was a solitary hunter, basically hatch the eggs, raise them, and let them fend for themselves.
But for many who have seen the numbers increase, like myself and my family, we have come to realize that they are a familial bird, they hunt together, the talk amongst each other, they teach their young where the best places are.  I have two families that perch in an around my yard, depending on the time of year, and their numbers are increasing.  I am learning more and more from watching them and to think that someone could just blatantly kill them because it is their religious rite, this sounds more like ritualistic killing or using excuses for the murder of our National Symbol.
Have I said it is needless slaughter?
I am a Native American by blood, I am an American through and through, and I am a Soldier who has fought under this symbol for twenty years.  This disgusts me.

This is an Old Soldier Ranting