Bird deaths in Dakota blamed on cattle rather than oil (FULL COMMENT Blog FP)

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Kelly McParland  January 21, 2011 – 2:34 pm

REUTERS/Hazir Reka

Starlings ... apparently only ducks count

Precisely 1606 ducks died in April 2008 when they landed on a Syncrude tailings pond, and you’d have thought the world had come to an end with them.

The outcry was immediate and international. The environmental industry went ballistic, and found plenty of vote-seeking politicians eager to issue ringing condemnations. Alberta’s government went on red alert, mounting a public relations campaign in the U.S. to repair the industry’s damaged image. Hollywood director James Cameron was flown in and shepherded around like royalty in the hope he’d attest that Fort McMurray isn’t really the third ring of hell.

So what to make of this: The U.S. Department of Agriculture has acknowledged it was behind the mass death of hundreds of birds that fell from the sky in South Dakota. The USDA says it poisoned them after a farmer complained they were pooping in his animal feed.

USDA wildlife biologist Ricky Woods explained that a large group of starlings was causing problems in a north Nebraska cattle feedlot, eating the feed and leaving waste on both the feed and equipment. So the USDA put out DRC 1339 poison for the birds, Woods said.

“Lethal means are always a last resort,” said Woods. “In this situation it’s what we had to do.”

So I guess we can expect environmentalists to march on South Dakota and close down the cattle business, which may be the worst blight to scar the earth’s surface, while Cameron mounts a film that pits innocent aliens against the ravages of the encroaching cow business.

National Post

Posted in: Canada, Environment, Full Comment, Social Issues, U.S. Politics  Tags: Alberta, Avatar, Fort McMurray, James Cameron, Kelly McParland, Oilsands, Syncrude

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