November 22, 2011

Poisonous Solution

The Avitrol® problem

The Humane Society of the United States

by Maggie Brasted

Avitrol® poisoning is distressing. “Birds were just falling out of the sky. They would land, lie on the ground, flap and die,” a Staten Island resident told the New York Daily News in December 2007.

A neighbor added that the birds were flying around crooked—“as if they were drunk”—before torpedoing to the ground when more than 50 common grackles plummeted to the pavement.

In Phoenix, a resident told KPHS News, “They just literally started falling from the sky. It's almost like raining dead birds,” when doves, house sparrows, pigeons, and even a protected Towhee littered her back yard. 

Metro stations in Washington, D.C., closed in 2007 when the discovery of numerous dead birds raised fears of a terror attack. These reports made news while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reviewed the compound that killed these birds, 4-aminopyridine. Products containing 4-aminopyridine (brand name Avitrol®) are commonly used by licensed pest control operators on a number of birds.

The facts

• Avitrol®, promoted as a “flock frightening agent” or “repellent,” is a nervous system toxicant. It readily kills birds, and is dangerous to mammals and other animals.
• It causes birds who eat it to suffer convulsions, fly erratically, sometimes striking structures, vocalize repeatedly, and eventually die. 
• The most common target birds are pigeons, house sparrows, and starlings. 
• From 2002 to 2006, 151-175 pounds of 4-aminopyridine were sold in the U.S. each year—enough to kill more than 200 million birds each year.

Users claim that the distressed behavior of poisoned birds frightens other flock members away. The birds most often poisoned with Avitrol® do not react strongly to flockmates’ distress. In most cases, it kills a large part of the flock. And any “frightening” effect of Avitrol® on surviving birds is very short-lived, because remaining birds return quickly and reproduce. The poisoning cycle continues, making money for pest control companies, and a program of highly dubious public worth. 

What the EPA is doing

In 2007, the EPA began a review of this poison to determine if it is eligible for re-registration under the Federal Insecticide, Rodenticide, and Fungicide Act (FIFRA). FIFRA is intended to safeguard the public and the environment from these often dangerous substances by regulating what may be sold and how each may be used. In written comments, The HSUS urged the EPA to remove this poison from the market or, at a minimum, strengthen protective measures. 
 
There are many reasons to object to this poison—not least of which is the apparently cruel death it inflicts on target birds and other animals. However, the EPA must judge Avitrol® products on the criteria in FIFRA, and humaneness to target animals is not one of those criteria.

But Avitrol® is indiscriminant; it is dangerous to non-target animals—including pets—and to accidentally exposed people, especially children. At the very least, the EPA has an obligation to protect children and animals who are not targets. But the EPA's proposed measures do not give non-target animals that required protection.

Four years later, in 2011, EPA's final decision is still awaited. The HSUS, along with the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), has strongly urged EPA to act promptly to, at a minimum, impose the restriction on Avitrol use that EPA proposed in 2007.

Humane alternatives

There are numerous proven humane methods to resolve conflicts with “nuisance” birds such as pigeons, ranging from a new “hatch control” drug (OvoControl-P), which would limit pigeon reproduction, to ways to make sites where birds congregate unwelcoming. 

What you can do

If you think you’ve found poisoned birds, be aware that groups of birds can die from diseases. If the birds are mainly pigeons, house sparrows, European starlings, or blackbirds in a developed area, Avitrol® poisoning may be a strong possibility. Tell-tale signs include erratic flight, tremors, and convulsions. Avitrol® is typically administered on corn kernels or pieces, so corn in the affected birds’ mouths or scattered in the area is common when birds are poisoned.  

• Try to help any surviving birds by immediately contacting your local animal control agency, a wildlife rehabilitator, or a veterinarian. 
• Dead birds and scattered bait should not be allowed to remain in the open where raptors and scavengers, including neighborhood dogs and cats, can be exposed.
• Contact local animal control about this if the property owner or manager is not removing these hazards immediately.
• If you believe you have found a federally protected species poisoned, contact your regional USFWS enforcement office. 

Buildings where you work or shop, garages where you park, and other places you frequent may be poisoning birds with Avitrol®. Most poisoning is done at times and places few people will notice.

• Ask questions of apartment management, condo or coop boards, office facility managers, store managers, and others if you suspect that birds in communities where you live or work may be targets of poisoning.
• Politely inform any who are or may be hiring a pest control company to poison birds that you disapprove and that humane alternatives are available and effective.

Maggie Brasted is the director of urban wildlife education and research for The Humane Society of the United States.

Updated November 2011.