Questions About NJ Bird Kill

Last weekend, "hundreds of birds...dropped dead on Somerset County cars, porches and snow-covered lawns," according to the Star-Ledger. The birds were all starlings and it turns out USDA had sprayed a farm with pesticide to kill the birds, whose droppings were contaminating farm animals' food. The USDA admitted it wasn't handled well—"Unfortunately, this was also done on a Friday, so the birds died on the weekend when no one was around to respond to calls. I can just imagine it would have been very disconcerting for people to find the birds dead"—but now two Congressman want to make sure their constituents are prepared if they see dozens of bird corpses on their lawns.; the AP reports that Reps. Rush Holt and Frank Pallone Jr. are asking for an investigation. While the USDA says there was no health threat to residents, PETA describes, "DRC-1339 kills birds by attacking their kidneys, eventually resulting in total renal failure and death. This is a slow, torturous process that can take up to several days."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on January 30, 2009 8:20 AM

Comments [rss]

Amanda Harletsch

let's kill all other species to keep the population of idiots growing!

Clarice City

awful.

Whammo

In the time it took you to read this story a dozen babies were needlessly aborted.

But you are outraged over dead birds.

NannyState

Those "dozen babies" posed a serious threat to the food supply by being overconsuming superpredators that would have eaten the planet. Now just harmless infectious medical waste. Praise Jesus!

Amanda Harletsch

peanut, have you heard of zero sum logic?

zstone

Hundreds of living, breathing animals versus a dozen slimy, amorphous blobs. Yes, I care more about the birds than the fetuses.

Felix Hoenikker

Are you sure about the needlessly part?

We only did it that one time and prom is coming up!

barryap

"DRC-1339 kills birds by attacking their kidneys"

And birds kill Airbus A320s by attacking their engines.

Brooklynbobby

"This is a slow, torturous process that can take up to several days."

Nice. Very humane.

Felix Hoenikker

Fly away Agent Starling, fly away!

Buck Owens

Why don't they target pigeons? Or do the farmers have a larger lobby than New Yorkers?

jackdonaghy

Creepy story. Even worse, M. Night Shyamalan has a plot for his next flop.

maryjr

Oh, so because they have emerged as a stronger species we should try to eliminate them? Kinda creepy...

missbloom

Ghostie is 100% correct; starlings are an invasive species and actually wreck havoc on our ecosystem, but spraying toxic chemicals probably not the smartest way to get rid of them.

Ghostie

Well starlings are an invasive species that are bad for native bird populations. But spraying this kills as many native birds as starlings, not to mention other wildlife. There must be a better way!

JRod5417

That's just awful. Maybe the farm animals should get fed indoors. There's just gotta be a better to go about this.

Rocknrope

Deeead biiiiiiird. Gonna put it on yoouuuuuuuuu. Put it on youuuuuuuu.

maryjr

I find it very hard to believe that there is no other way to protect the farm animals' food. This is absolutely outrageous!!! I am so angry!

Outter Burrougher

call me crazy, but maybe whenever we plan to have things falling out of the sky, we should give people a heads up

Jen Chung

I'm with you—also, seeing dozens (if not hundreds... apparently thousands of birds were targeted) of dead birds on my lawn would scare the bejesus out of me. And if I had kids? Also, what about cats or dogs trying to eat dead, pesticided bird?