http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3709311
Source: CBS
Dead birds were found all over Franklin Township in Somerset County,
reports CBS station WCBS-TV in New York City. On front lawns,
rooftops, and even in the middle of the street. Neighbors are still
picking them up, while others are frightened to even get near them.
Andrea Kepic says it was like a scene out of a horror movie when she
walked out of her home Friday night. "There was a dead bird on my
stoop. Then I looked beyond and saw other dead birds on my steps," she
says. "I thought first they were diseased."
Kepic says she looked around and there were dead birds as far as her
eyes could see. "I walked over to my car stepping over them," she says.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirms it is responsible for a
controlled kill to reduce the European starling population. Township
manager Ken Daly says the USDA placed seeds tainted with poison at a
local farm to kill as many as 5,000 of the birds.
"The birds eat the seed and metabolize the poison and die with 24
hours," he tells WCBS. "Once they metabolize, the poison is gone so
we've been told by USDA that the carcasses are not a danger to humans
or any animals that might eat them."
Read more: http://wcbstv.com/watercooler/usda.bird.kill.2.918730.h...
A local paper editorial:
Officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are one heck of a
tight-lipped group. How else is there to explain the massive poisoning
of blackbirds and starlings over the weekend, spreading thousands of
carcasses across Franklin Township — on top of roofs, driveways,
gutters and cars — and scaring residents silly?
Aside from a cryptic notice received late on Friday, township
officials had little idea what the USDA was planning to do: setting
out poison seed to kill off some of the voracious raiders of
agricultural fields. So when the bodies started dropping literally out
of the sky, the folks at Town Hall had few ready answers.
Aside from the unnecessary fear that was stoked, there is another,
bigger reason to take offense to the kill-off: those blackbird-
poisoning programs run by UDSA have little basis in science or on
economic grounds. Studies have shown the mass killings have little
effect on crop damage, while populations of blackbirds tend to rebound
rapidly, though natural methods that compensate for mass die-offs, so
the costly programs are largely ineffective.
The USDA should scrap the program.
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20090127/OPINION...
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