USA/ Perroquets tués pour l'électricité....

[Animal 0]

Animal rights activists upset a plan to remove parakeet nests

Associated Press

Published November 17 2005


HARTFORD, Conn. -- An effort to remove South American parakeet nests from utility poles has ruffled the feathers of some animal rights activists.

United Illuminating this week began removing 103 monk parakeet nests from poles in West Haven, Milford, Stratford and Bridgeport.

Forty-seven of the bright-green, pigeon-sized birds have been killed in the first few days of the eradication project, said Al Carbone, a UI spokesman.

At night, when the birds return home, crews poke holes through their nests and capture them in a net.

The parakeets are turned over to the United States Department of Agriculture, which euthanizes most of them using carbon dioxide.

"This is a $125,000 senseless and immoral project," said Priscilla Feral, president of Norwalk-based Friends of Animals. "There is no crime that these lovely birds have committed that would warrant their senseless killing."

The power company says the eradication plan is necessary because the birds are building the nests near transformers, creating fire hazards and the potential for power outages.

Each nest can be 4 feet in diameter and hold up to 40 birds, according to the USDA.

"The material in one nest can fill the bed of a pickup truck," said Corey Slavitt, a USDA spokeswoman.

Since 2003, the nests have caused two fires on United Illuminating poles, Carbone said.

He said the parakeets can't be set free because they remember where their nests were and will build there again.

Slavitt said some of the birds are used for research, but there are no provisions made to relocate them.

"There have been efforts to discourage the nest building using plastic owls, chemical repellents, lasers, ultrasonic frequency, and these have been very, very unsuccessful," Carbone said.

The pigeon-sized monk parakeets, natives of South America, were imported into the United States by the thousands in the 1960s.

Birds that were accidentally or intentionally released by owners and breeders have established wild colonies in cities all over North America.

The birds, which started appearing in southwest Connecticut several years ago, are considered an invasive species by the state Department of Environmental Protection, which supports the eradication plan.

The state's other power company, Northeast Utilities, said it is watching the program carefully.

NU had to remove a parakeet nest in Old Saybrook in 2003, but hasn't yet had a major problem with the birds, said Al Lara, a company spokesman.

"The concern is that it won't take very long for these birds to move into our service area," he said.
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