08/24/94

WARNING ** Material below may be too bestial for some **
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Subject: Beasts of burden

At some point in the discussion of feral vs other, it was mentioned
that there are three spp of bird _not_ protected by various Acts:
starling, rodo, eng sparrow. Thus, possible "undesirable" birds
such as BH Cowbird, Shiny Cowbird, escaped "feral" parrots,
etc. are protected. Every so often, I read about some city or
county eliminating rodo's (Rock Doves, or "pigeons") by putting
some yucky chemical on the bridge or rooftop of choice and
the rodo's are (killed? maimed? just pushed out to some other
roof top?) magically gone. Does anybody out there know about
this practice? Is it (very) toxic to the rest of us? Could it be used
to "eliminate" other "undesirable" spp? Like, cowbirds at my feeder?

I have also wondered about the various not-so-facetious references
to shooting of various "undesirable" feral cats, feral animals of
various sorts, and of course, birds. I live in a quasi-rural area, and
of course people poach really large animals all the time, and
it would hardly be noticed, a few gun shots one way or the other.

In town, I would think that it would be illegal to shoot these
"varmits" (great word, eh?) just because of gun ordinances, if not
due to lack of a gun, or poor markmanship (both, in my case).
But what about otherwise?

(BTW, there's not even a gun ordinance in the whole county
that I live in (Pacific, WA) -- is it this way in other counties,
outside of incorporated places?)

For that matter, what about live-trapping? I have read about
"official" people, e.g., NFWS personnel, trapping BH Cowbirds
in Kirtland's Wb areas. Can a person not associated w/
the US Gummint (as Pogo would say) get a permit to do
such a thing? How about a govt grant (no, just kidding ...)?

IMHO, Dennis & Pogo are right: "We have met the enemy,
and the enemy is us."

So what can we do to lessen the burden we have brought
about on the life systems we depend on ?

Thank you for the use of your soapbox -- I will stand down.

Alan Richards
Naselle, WA
alanr at ednet1.osl.or.gov

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