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Fowl Play
Federal wildlife officers are cracking down on hobbyists who kill raptors that prey on the pigeons they raise. But criminals rarely get more than a slap on the wrist because the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, an effective and versatile tool for 90 years, has lost its edge and needs sharpening.
Audubon May/June 2008
Centralvalleylofts: “Just put some draino liquid on some of your weaker birds and let them take them and bye bye baby. Make sure you rub it on the back of their necks.”
Steve uk: “Shaun u need a larson trap [for raptors].”
Shaun: “Steve, I very recently acquired one and it ain’t working! Any hints?”
Steve uk: “It will work just keep tryin, the hen will start takin greater risks soon as she will be desperate to put weight on before laying.”
Shaun: “Put weight on? The fat, ugly, brown bastard is still probably digesting a dozen of my rollers! Can’t I just let off a homemade bomb at the bottom of my garden.”
J. Star: “I sit and wait for him behind a big bush and within a half hour he in on top of the Avery thinking he is going to catch a bird and soon he is picked off. . . .You will not see him again until another one comes to take his territory, then you repeat the process.”
Spider: “I use a 12 ga shotgun with led #5 shot. . . . Sometimes I get 2-3 friends with 12 gages and we have a ball seeing who can get led in these loft destroyers. . . . Good luck and good hunting.”
Rollerman 132: “What we need to do is hire a lawyer, and bring a class auction law suit against the department of U.S Fish and wild life for contributing to the destruction of personal property. . . . My birds are worth at lest a hundred each, I want compensation for each bird those hawks eat.”
The NBRC has responded to Operation High Roller with an official press release alleging that Cooper’s hawks have proliferated to the point of pestilence, and castigating the Fish and Wildlife Service for 1) stubbornly refusing to “relocate” them to areas where they won’t eat roller pigeons, and 2) making “inappropriate and grossly exaggerated comments . . . which sought to tar thousands of roller fanciers by reason of the unfortunate allegations against less than a dozen individuals.”
But it’s clear that raptor killing in the roller-flyer community isn’t just the work of a few bad apples. Most of the barrel is fermented mash. After all, of the roughly 60 NBRC members Newcomer worked while undercover, 59 said they killed hawks. It’s part of the culture.
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