Expert Recommends Killing Oil-Soaked Birds

Der Speigel ^ | May 6, 2010

[Plutarch]

So far, not many birds have been harmed by the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as the slick has yet to hit land. But many more brown pelicans, like this one, and birds of other species are likely to become covered in oil.

A German biologist says that efforts to clean oil-drenched birds in the Gulf of Mexico are in vain. For the birds' sake, it would be faster and less painful if animal-rescue workers put them under, she says. Studies and other experts back her up.

"Kill, don't clean," is the recommendation of a German animal biologist, who this week said that massive efforts to clean oil-soaked birds in Gulf of Mexico won't do much to stop a near certain and painful death for the creatures.

Despite the short-term success in cleaning the birds and releasing them back into the wild, few, if any, have a chance of surviving, says Silvia Gaus, a biologist at the Wattenmeer National Park along the North Sea in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.

"According to serious studies, the middle-term survival rate of oil-soaked birds is under 1 percent," Gaus says. "We, therefore, oppose cleaning birds."

The oil spill -- which continues to pump more than 200,000 gallons (755,000 liters) of crude into the Gulf each day -- was caused by an April 20 explosion on a BP-operated oil rig about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast.

In the path of the spill are several large protected areas for wildlife, including a vital nesting area for thousands of brown pelicans which were only removed from the US Endangered Species Program last year. Louisiana's Breton National Wildlife Refuge is by itself home to 34,000 birds...

[Plutarch]

I've been wondering, since there is a massive oil slick, where are the heart-rending photographs of oil soaked wildlife? I looked for these news stories, and the only ones were in the foreign press. For some reason the U.S. MSM is sparing us from seeing these.

[pissant]

The meat’s still good, ain’t it? Prisoner food.

[chicken head]

it’ll slide right down— dont even have to chew it up

[pissant]

Just like a real pelican eats

[IamCenny]

The prison food is already pretty bad, why make it worse?

[pissant]

Can we feed the prisoners to the pelicans instead?

[IamCenny]

The truly deranged and guilty ones, sure.

[The KG9 Kid]

First the German animal rights activists demanded that the little polar bear 'Knut' in the Berlin Zoo be killed, and now they're sticking their noses into oily pelicans a half a world away from them as if it's any of their damned business?

I don't quite think that I understand this whole 'Animals vill be bred und SLAUGHTERED' mentality these people have, but I'm starting to think that you have to have a German brain to come up with these 'final solutions'.

[MarMema]

The survival rate will differ with each oil spill because of all the factors that effect it. Some of those factors are the toxicity of the oil, how rapidly the birds are collected and stabilized, what condition the bird was in before it was oiled, and the species involved. We have had release rates as high as 100% and as low as 25% in the early years. We now average about 50% to 80%. Again, it depends on many variables and cannot be predicted.

[HiTech RedNeck]

This kind of thing is not supposed to happen with a Democrat president. Therefore we are not told.

Saith the referenced article, bird cleaning is usually in vain for the reason that by the time an oiled bird is caught it has probably managed to ingest a fatally poisonous dose of oil. If there were some easy test for whether a bird had thus been poisoned, it might be possible to save more birds as time, effort, and cleaning resources would not be wasted on birds in such bad shape that they would better be euthanized.

[Plutarch]

The meat’s still good, ain’t it? Prisoner food.

Actually, the prisoner's are going to be used to clean, rather than eat, the pelicans.

Prisoners in Louisiana marching to a training exercise to learn how to clean oil from stricken birds. Some researchers say it might be better to let the birds die. Studies say that just 1 percent of cleansed birds survive -- many die from the stress of being handled by humans.

[cynwoody]

Can we feed the prisoners to the pelicans instead?

[HiTech RedNeck]

If they are part of worldwide humane societies it would make sense for them to speak up. I don’t understand the situation with Knut (the likes of PETA would not want any zoos to exist). But triage on birds caught in oil spills sounds like it makes eminent sense.

[cynwoody]

Dang. Beat me to it.

[The KG9 Kid]

I don’t know who races out to find animal victims of these man-made disasters, but anyone who wants to scrub the oil off a pelican or an otter is A-OK in my book.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Why not make lampshades out of them like, oh, wait...

[LibertyRocks]

You MUST be right, because Germans are the only group to have EVER participated in Genocide, and the NAZIs (note not ALL Germans were NAZIs) killing 6 million Jews, Homosexuals, Gypsies, Christians, the Handicapped and the elderly is a lot like the humane killing of a suffering Pelican. And the “German Brain” as you say is the only brain capable of thinking of “evil”.
< /sarc >
(In case you REALLY needed that tag. Given your post, I thought it might be a safe bet.)

[The KG9 Kid]

OK, so I was a little over the top.

[Gadsden1st]

Black Skin Heads??

[XHogPilot]

You need to read further down into the article you linked:

How many of them live after they are released? We don't know.