Louisiana - New Orleans - ​City says it poisoned pigeons to control population

[Pathfinder]

City says it poisoned pigeons to control population

Meg Farris / Eyewitness News 8:02 p.m. CDT May 18, 2015

NEW ORLEANS --...

"When they see some food down here or something, there's like one or two or three or four at the most, when there used to be 40 or 50 or more. Like, something's been happening to the pigeons," said street vendor Shane Riley.
...
"I saw this pigeon right next to me, and he was just like, going through convulsions and his eyes were twitching and flapping, and it was really, really sad," said Jehan Strouse of a food shop called "3 potato 4."
...
The city of New Orleans said last week the French Market Corporation, under the city's pest control board, put the poison in bird food on the roof...

They issued the following statement:

"The French Market Corporation was taking proactive steps to control pigeon populations. Pigeons can be a public health threat and are prone to carry disease. Through an independent pest control company, the French Market placed bait feeders with Avitrol around the market. Avitrol is an EPA-approved method of controlling pigeon populations. The New Orleans Mosquito, Termite and Rodent Control Board has since advised the French Market to explore other nonchemical solutions to control pigeon populations, and the French Market has since removed the bait feeders.
...

Full text and video:

http://www.wwltv.com/story/news/loc...in-french-quarter-pigeon-population/27552265/

 

[Emily]

May 16, 2013
Avitrol? Bird Poison Not the Solution to Nuisance Bird Populations

Cruel and ineffective bird poison is also dangerous to other animals and people
The Humane Society of the United States
by Maggie Brasted
Avitrol? poisoning is distressing. “Birds were just falling out of the sky. They would land, lie on the ground, flap and die,” a Staten Island resident told the New York Daily News.
A neighbor added that the birds were flying around crooked—“as if they were drunk”—before torpedoing to the ground when more than 50 common grackles plummeted to the pavement.
In Phoenix, a resident told KPHS News, “They just literally started falling from the sky. It's almost like raining dead birds,” when doves, house sparrows, pigeons, and even a protected Towhee littered her back yard.
...
The facts on Avitrol? bird poison

• Avitrol?, promoted as a “flock frightening agent” or “repellent,” is a nervous system toxicant. It readily kills birds, and is dangerous to mammals and other animals.
• It causes birds who eat it to suffer convulsions, fly erratically, sometimes striking structures, vocalize repeatedly, and eventually die.
• The most common target birds are pigeons, house sparrows, and starlings.
• From 2002 to 2006, 151-175 pounds of 4-aminopyridine were sold in the U.S. each year— enough to kill more than 200 million birds each year.

... When the EPA reviewed this poison several years ago, The HSUS urged them to remove it from the market or, at a minimum, strengthen protective measures. But in 2007, the EPA determined Avitrol? could remain on the market. However, new protective restrictions on its use were supposed to to be imposed as part of that decision in the form of a new, more restrictive label.
Six years later, in 2013, the new label is still awaited. ...

http://www.humanesociety.org/animals...s/avitrol.html

Still waiting? From the manufacturer's website:

Does Avitrol pose a threat to other species?
-If not properly used, yes. Avitrol is toxic to all vertebrate species that eat the chemical.

The site says 'pre-baiting', that is using good corn to train birds to feed every day at the location selected for later poisoning, is likely necessary for weeks, or "as long as it takes."