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DEFENDERS OF ANIMALS
“RI DEM’s position on Bird Poisoning predictable and wrong states animal control group.”
Post Office Box 5634
Weybosset Hill Station
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 738-3710
News Release
For Immediate Release
July 28, 2007
“RI DEM’s position on Bird Poisoning predictable and wrong states animal control group.”
The RI DEM's response to New England Pest Control using Avitrol to kill birds at the National Grid complex in Lincoln was
Predictable and wrong according to Defenders of Animals director. “DEM has had its own problems regarding the control of wildlife. For example, DEM's response to controlling the mute swan population in RI years back was to snap the necks of all the female swans it could catch.
Defenders of Animals is having a bill filed that would ban the use of Avitrol in Rhode Island, which is used to poison birds in Rhode Island. It’s clear to us that RIDEM, National Grid, and New England Pest Control did not go beyond their own desks to research Avitrol. Former Governor George Pataki of New York signed a bill in August of 2000 that banned it in New York City. San Francisco, California, and Boulder, Colorado have worked toward prohibiting the use or restricting the use of Avitrol also. Why is Avitrol necessary in Rhode Island? Are RI birds more of a health threat than they are in New York City?
"New England Pest Control is trying to make it sound like Avitrol is a flock-dispersing
agent," Avicides like Avitrol are acutely toxic and cause birds and other animals to suffer
immensely; it attacks and impairs birds' nervous systems, causing birds who ingest the
poison to become disoriented and exhibit erratic flight and tremors and suffer violent
convulsions for hours before they finally succumb to the effects of the toxin. In addition, non-targeted species such as protected songbirds often perish from eating tainted baits and predators such as raptors, foxes, hawks, cats, and dogs die from secondary poisoning after feeding on the dead or dying birds. Wildlife pathologists have demonstrated repeatedly that protected and endangered birds including red-tailed hawks and peregrine falcons die as a result of ingesting the remains of pigeons and other birds poisoned with Avitrol. It's out-right cruelty as far as we are concerned. It's a reckless practice that must stop.
On August 2, 2006 when a deadly rain of pigeons fell out of the sky in Schenectady, New York, after a pesticide application, forcing the closing of a local hospital emergency room. According to ABC News, Ellis Hospital had contracted with a pest control company to dispose of a growing pigeon population on the roof of the hospital. The pigeons and their droppings posed a health hazard and a nuisance. The company, Rentokil, Inc., applied the avian pesticide Avitrol on July 28 in a mixture of corn and
birdseed. The pesticide was supposed to poison a few birds whose erratic behavior and death would frighten off the rest of the flock. Instead, it caused twenty-eight pigeons to be killed and fall from the sky around the Ellis Hospital emergency room. "Birds were coming down like dive bombers," according to Fire Chief Robert Farstad.
On Thursday, July 19, Defenders of Animals, Inc., a Rhode Island based animal rights
group, called on Rhode Islanders and Rhode Island businesses to boycott New England
Pest Control for killing sparrows and starlings in Lincoln. DEM can't allow people to just indiscriminately put out poison that can be ingested by non-targeted species
including endangered and protected species and family pets. It's clear that National Grid
did not check around to see what other large companies like CVS with all its buildings
were doing to solve their bird problems. If CVS and other large companies in Rhode
Island can solve their bird problem humanely so can National Grid. In the meantime, the RIDEM is endorsing cruelty.
Dennis Tabella
Is the director of Defenders of Animals, Inc.
P. O. Box 5634
Weybosset Hill Station
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 738-3710
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