AlaskaDenise
In Memoriam
U.S. Department of Agriculture officials now say they should have given residents in the area some kind of advance notice before they poisoned thousands of European starlings east of Moxee last weekend.
Well, yeah!
What with the likes of avian flu scares linked to dead birds and all, it's probably a good idea for people to know why they're suddenly falling from the sky by the bagful. Such is so even if in this case it was a targeted poisoning of the pests at the DeVries Dairy, paid for by the dairy, with little residual risk, according to USDA officials.
That doesn't negate the need to let people know when a mass poisoning is imminent. It's common practice to warn about pesticide applications in orchards and on fields and farms, so why not sanctioned bird poisonings?
If nothing else, it's good public relations. Some people might want to keep pets and poultry inside until the all-clear is given, even with government assurances there's no danger. The poison, DRC 1339, attacks the birds' kidneys, is metabolized within 30 minutes and does not pose a threat to other animals. According to the department, there have no documented secondary poisonings of mammal or bird scavengers eating the poisoned birds.
Starlings love to congregate in huge flocks at feed lots and dairies and we have both types of facilities in Yakima County. They're also known to eat cherries and the like, so they can be a destructive force as well as a nuisance.
So the pest eradication program is probably defensible. But when it happens, let it be with a little common sense as a component of good PR.
http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2523
Well, yeah!
What with the likes of avian flu scares linked to dead birds and all, it's probably a good idea for people to know why they're suddenly falling from the sky by the bagful. Such is so even if in this case it was a targeted poisoning of the pests at the DeVries Dairy, paid for by the dairy, with little residual risk, according to USDA officials.
That doesn't negate the need to let people know when a mass poisoning is imminent. It's common practice to warn about pesticide applications in orchards and on fields and farms, so why not sanctioned bird poisonings?
If nothing else, it's good public relations. Some people might want to keep pets and poultry inside until the all-clear is given, even with government assurances there's no danger. The poison, DRC 1339, attacks the birds' kidneys, is metabolized within 30 minutes and does not pose a threat to other animals. According to the department, there have no documented secondary poisonings of mammal or bird scavengers eating the poisoned birds.
Starlings love to congregate in huge flocks at feed lots and dairies and we have both types of facilities in Yakima County. They're also known to eat cherries and the like, so they can be a destructive force as well as a nuisance.
So the pest eradication program is probably defensible. But when it happens, let it be with a little common sense as a component of good PR.
http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2523