USDA poisoned pesky starlings at farmers' request

Marilyn Stapleton looked outside her backyard Saturday and thought one of the 10 plagues of Egypt had struck down the birds in east Moxee.

Hundreds of them lay motionless everywhere, and beyond her property lay bodies of thousands more. She spent several hours picking up the small black birds until she filled three trash bags.

"They were just everywhere ... just like they fell right out of the sky," she said. "I was really upset because nobody said anything about this."

As it turns out, the plague was a controlled poisoning by the U.S. Department of Agriculture at the request of surrounding farmers to try to reduce the population of European Starlings in the area, estimated at 45,000.

According to the USDA Web site, the birds have been a nuisance ever since the species was introduced to the U.S. in 1890, destroying fruit crops, spreading livestock disease and pushing native bird species out of their territory.

Locally, a starling short-circuited equipment at a Pacific Power substation in Toppenish last fall, cutting the power for about 6,000 Lower Valley residents and businesses.

In particular, the starlings thrive in livestock areas such as DeVries Dairy, across from Stapleton's home on Highway 24. That's where dairy owner Tom DeVries said the USDA launched its project, although at the time he said no one thought to tell his neighbors.

"I apologize; we should have notified them," DeVries said. "The USDA did a controlled kill, but a lot of the birds fly in and fly out and they didn't know where some of them would end up.

"We didn't mean to upset anyone, just trying to control the population out here."

Art McEwen, an environmental-health specialist with the Yakima Health District, said the USDA did let Yakima County know about the starling poisoning but was under the impression county officials were going to warn neighbors. McEwen said the USDA conducts poisonings around the county each spring.

"I think this was the second one so far, and that other poisoning took place in the Lower Valley," he said. "I thought they had posted signs around the actual site to let people know what was going to happen, but I'm not sure about that."

Although McEwen said the poison is not harmful to dogs or cats who eat the birds, neighbors said that information would have been of more use Saturday morning.

Some, like Stapleton, kept their dogs inside the house and went so far as to burn the bodies of the birds for fear the poison would kill them, too.

"I've got sheep and chicken and cats and dogs, and I'm thinking if this kills birds, then what else does it kill?" Laurie Cantrell said. "The birds are still dropping dead in my yard, and I have to spend all day picking them up. This pretty much stinks."

Stapleton said DeVries apologized when she called to complain and even sent a few workers to finish picking up the dead starlings on her property.

She said she hopes someone can notify her if it occurs again.

"That's the first time that they've ever done it around here," she said. "The whole problem is if they are going to do something like that, they should be advising the people. Because it was a real shock to get up to all these dead birds this morning and not know."