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Category: Poisoning wildlife | Date: Apr 16 2008 | By: admin

I discovered today, that the poisoning of wildlife in Africa is not unique and that the problem is much more serious globally than any of us had imagined when we started thinking about lions and vultures. I’ve been doing a little snooping around the internet and found these articles which reveal that the correct use of Furadan, a carbamate based agricultural pesticide in crops, can have unintended effects on wildlife that eat the crops in USA. We are so used to seeing Furadan being used to directly poison predators that this research completely surprised me.

The unintentional effects of agricultural poisons on wildlife are harder to prove and to stop as it involves the legal use of chemicals. What we are seeing in Kenya is the inappropriate use of chemicals like Furadan for the intentioned killing wildlife for the most ill informed and poorly thought out reasons. This is what we are most concerned about. It is a problem that is not restricted to Africa. Consider these stories…

In a case in the USA in 1994 an investigation led to the arrest of a farmer called Barnes who laced hamburger meat with Furadan and scattered it around his property to kill coyotes. He was trying deter coyotes from taking his free roaming poultry.

This is an excerpt from the US fish and Wildlife press release

“He did not know his actions would have a “domino effect” resulting in the deaths of many other animals feeding on the carcasses of those killed by the poison bait.

“This case is an unfortunate example of why toxic pesticides are very restricted in their use and method of application,” said Steve Middleton, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Resident Agent in Charge, Law Enforcement, Nashville, Tennessee. “Those who attempt to control predators must realize that the consequences of illegal poisoning may, and likely will, result in the deaths of unintended targets such as hawks, eagles, and family or neighbors’ pets. Furadan will kill anyone or anything that ingests it.”

Furadan is a restricted use pesticide which is only legally used by a certified applicator. To use Furadan as a poison is a violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

In lieu of appearance in federal court, Barnes paid $2,500 in federal violation notices issued for the illegal taking of the migratory birds.”

I wonder if that was an adequate punishment? What do you think? In Kenya the penalty for killing wildlife by any means is pretty small and ranges from Ksh 2,000 to 20,000 or $27 - $270. Frightening isn’t it?

In another case, A. Laverne Ehlers was also found guilty of poisoning eagles on a pheasant hunting ground. A search on his property found 68 dead raptors including 21 bald and golden eagles on his 6,000 acre property. He was trying to protect the pheasants from being killed by raptors so that he had more for hunting! He did this by lacing tuna cans with Furadan and was also shooting birds. Ehlers plead guilty and paid $80,000 in restitution to the forensic labs and on the 22^nd of March 2002 he was sentenced on the misdemeanor Eagle Act and spent 30 days in prison, 5 months in home detention and had one year of supervised release during which he was not allowed to possess a fire arm.

The poisoning of wildlife is also a major problem in UK where a special program addresses it through CAP the Campaign against illegal Poisoning of wildlife. If any of you are in UK please look them up and download their leaflets that are shown on their website. We are trying to contact them for advice – after all there’s no need to re-invent the wheel. We’d like to learn how others have tackled the problem of illegal poisoning of wildlife.

The BBC in this article today reported that in Scotland people are also poisoning raptors on grouse hunting grounds to protect the grouse for a multi million dollar industry in grouse hunting. I feel so sad that people who hunt think that hunting is conserving the Scottish wilderness … the cash involved seems to be perverting things. Earlier this year BBC also reported that a Scottish farmer lost his agricultural subsidy worth 8,000 pounds (about $16,000) for lacing dead pheasanst with poison. The RSPB Scotland Director Stuart Housden is quoted as having stated

“Landowners and farmers receive very significant public subsidies, in return for which they are supposed to be good stewards of the environment “

We should be worried. Read this below..

According to the above article, despite all the evidence, it’s an uphill battle to keep these poisons off the market in USA, imagine how hard it will be in Kenya and other African countries!

Yet, knowing that the poisoning of wildlife is a problem in UK and USA too makes me even more determined to make sure that our Stop Poisoning Wildlife meeting at WildlifeDirect next week leads to real actions on the ground through better awareness, education, enforcement and policy changes. Please let us know if you have any useful information to share on this topic. We would love to hear your comments and experiences, as well as to receive any support to enable the meeting to take place next week.

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