Bye Bye Blackbird: USDA acknowledges a hand in one mass bird death

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | Patrik Jonsson

[Cedar]

It's not the "aflockalyptic" fallout from a secret US weapon lab as some have theorized. But the government acknowledged Thursday that it had a hand in one of a string of mysterious mass bird deaths that have spooked residents in Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, South Dakota, and Kentucky in the last month. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) took responsibility for hundreds of dead starlings that were found on the ground and frozen in trees in a Yankton, S.D., park on Monday. The USDA's Wildlife Services Program, which contracts with farmers for bird control, said it used an avicide poison called DRC-1339 to cull a roost of 5,000 birds defecating on a farmer's cattle feed across the state line in Nebraska. But officials said the agency had nothing to do with large and dense recent bird kills in Arkansas and Louisiana. Nevertheless, the USDA's role in the South Dakota bird deaths puts a focus on a little-known government bird-control program that began in the 1960s under the name of Bye Bye Blackbird, which eventually became part of the USDA and was housed in the late '60s at a NASA facility. In 2009, USDA agents euthanized more than 4 million red-winged blackbirds, starlings, cowbirds, and grackles, primarily using pesticides that the government says are not harmful to pets or humans. In addition to the USDA program, a so-called depredation order from the US Fish and Wildlife Service allows blackbirds, grackles, and starlings to be killed by anyone who says they pose health risks or cause economic damage... "Every winter, there's massive and purposeful kills of these blackbirds," says Greg Butcher, the bird conservation director at the National Audubon Society. "These guys are professionals, and they don't want to advertise their work. They like to work fast, efficiently, and out of sight."

[Cedar]

Didn't know this was going on, but I'm glad to find out at least some explanation for the deaths.

[HiTech RedNeck]

That still doesn’t explain why there seems to have been so much of this happening lately.

Poisoning pigeons in the park.

[Cedar]

I have to now suspect all the deaths are due to “government kills.” Fish deaths too perhaps. Not a good thing whoever is doing it.

[TruthConquers]

Maybe, maybe not.

Or just too many cases of “close enough for government work”?

You know like the FED printing and monetizing up too much money, maybe they used too much poison, and killed other birds they weren’t supposed to. Sounds familiar to me.

[El Sordo]

Haven’t heard that song in years!

[cricket]

And the fish? Whatever; not so funny,the lag time for explanation. . .not to mention the first one; post mortem.

[OneWingedShark]

Well, if they kill off wildlife to the extent that it becomes endangered they give political power to government entities like the EPA; if they kill off a lot of food-animals then they could start prohibiting hunting altogether — and if that were the case, they would effectively shut down all the hunting/2nd-amd links.

[Danae]

What happens when government decides we are the pests?

Just askin.

[tubebender]

Starlings are the Kudza of the Avian population. They will raid a songbird nest and kill the young and lay their eggs for the songbirds to raise. Black headed cow birds will do the same thing but I think they are native to America while the Starlings are a import.

[HiTech RedNeck]

An especially sick side of the Obama administration? A sadistic czar?

[Cedar]

Interesting. I’d still prefer they die natural deaths rather than by the government poisoning them. Maybe if I had a farm I’d think differently...don’t know.

[Mike-o-Matic]

  >> Haven’t heard that song in years!

Wait no longer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhuMLpdnOjY

[Mike-o-Matic]

Oopsie. Link fail! (hey, it's late)

Let's try that again.
Poisoning Pigeons in the Park - Tom Lehrer

[seowulf]

the lag time for explanation. . .

Come on, it takes time to come up with a good cover story.

[dragnet2]

I have to now suspect all the deaths are due to “government kills.” Fish deaths too perhaps.

Exactly correct...

You can no longer trust a word government says....

[tubebender]

Starting with

Hi, I’m from the government and I’m here to help you...

[Political Junkie Too]

Where are the environmentalists? Where is PETA? Where are the people who protest when hunters cull the herds of over-populated game?

-PJ

[HiTech RedNeck]

It is probably impossible for any conservative to twist his or her brain enough to understand PETA. PETA is a spiral of self contradictions — they will kill animals rather than have them subjected in some other manner to humans. If you asked them “isn’t that even worse?” they would just look at you with blank stares. I don’t know if they would prefer bird-cide to modern scarecrow technology.

[StormEye]

Starlings they can get rid of. Cowbirds are no loss either. The other bird species they should leave alone.

[maine-iac7]

The gov't is killing millions of birds - while putting generational farmers in Calif out of their livlihoods forever by shutting off their water for years - to protect a smelt.

Hey, who ya gonna trust?

Let me get this straight . . . . We're going to be "gifted" with a health care plan we are forced to purchase and fined if we don't,

Which purportedly covers at least ten million more people, without adding a single new doctor, but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents,

written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it,

passed by a Congress that didn't read it but exempted themselves from it,

and signed by a President who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes,

for which we'll be taxed for four years before any benefits take effect,

by a government which has already bankrupted Social Security and Medicare,

all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese,

and financed by a country that's broke!!!!!

'What the hell could possibly go wrong?'