Expert Recommends Killing Oil-Soaked Birds

Expert Recommends Killing Oil-Soaked Birds

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."

I was not aware that only 1% survive.

Terrible.

Wow, me neither.

That's sad, but if true, I guess BP could save millions and just kill 'em all...good luck to their new PR Director

That is a low survival rate, very sad to find that out.

It's definitely a difficult decision to make.

One thought I had is all of these bird's eggs.

I wonder if the people collecting the birds are also collecting eggs to incubate and care for, since the parents probably won't be able to do this.

Will also help to repopulate the area after all is said and done.

ok 1% live lets do some math say theres only 20k of that bird left in the world now there all covered in oil so all 20k are killed opps no more every sorrry.
now lets try this the old way and clean um up.
ok 99 out of a 100 die that still leaves 1 out of 100 10 out of a 1000 and a 100 out of tenk so if theres 20 k that leaves 200 with lots of hard work in 50 years you now have 20k again .
but lets just kill um all

reply to post by loam


1% is better than 0%.

Do these guys just act stupid or are they really this stupid.

If a few survive, even if its just a handful there is a much better chance of things returning to normal in a shorter amount of time. If you kill the whole lot, theres no chance at all.

Where do they get these guys?

Sorry, I wasnt thinking of money there, yeah its best to kill everything to save the money because thats more important (sarcasm). Pfft.

[edit on 7-5-2010 by XXXN3O]

I heard that killing german animal biologists instead of ignoring them is the way to go?

I don't know how credible the source is, so don't quote me on that one.

Here is an interesting section from an Audubon FAQ posted in their website:

Link.

What is your survival rate?

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.

Notice they use the term "release rate" here. Even those numbers are not great.

The FAQ continues:

How many of them live after they are released?

We don't know. We band all of our released birds with US Fish and Wildlife stainless steel bands. We get some returns on them but most of the birds we release live in remote regions and are never seen again. We have worked with avian specialists to fit rehabilitated birds with transmitters that allowed them to be monitored for a period of time. We plan on doing more post release studies in the future to help us determine the survival rate of oiled birds.

They don't know.



Essentially, I found nothing at Audubon that contradicts the 1% survivability rate.

Amazing.

I'm certain most people don't realize that.



[edit on 7-5-2010 by loam]

Perhaps it's time to start collecting and preserving viable DNA material from these animals before we can no longer find them.

These animals ingest high amounts of toxic goo as they struggle to clean themselves and they mostly die poisoned. But then, if we don't save some of them, how can we 'balance' that ecological equation?

I think it is a matter of effectively using whatever cleanup resources you have... or that BP is willing to give...

I would try cleaning them with Pink Solution. It is made out of seaweed and is all natural. I have found nothing that works better on oil. It is safe for pets and even safe if ingested. "Pink Solution is a natural enzyme cleaner, which when mixed with water, emulsifies dirt, grease and grime"
Seems like it would work great for the birds!

Check it out here:
pinksolution.ca...

wait... so you mean I'm buying all that Dawn dishwashing liquid for no reason? I thought the survival rate was much higher than 1%. this is sad

That's too bad but if it's only a 1% survival rate it would seem like the best thing to do and probably save a lot of suffering.

Just don't get the SWAT guy that shot the dog in the thread floating around here, that was a really poor shot on top of everything else..

This is absolutely heart breaking. I have to agree with a few that have posted on this thread...although 1% is staggering & very sad, it's better than zero. Some experts are predicting that extinction is a very real possibility to a variety of species that can only be found in the Gulf of Mexico.
The animals should be assessed on on an individual basis, ONLY those found to have toxicity levels above X%, should be put down in my opinion.
I pray for our planet.

If we are talking species survival, I think we need to do whatever we can. Particularly since more than the 1% may be able to mate, especially males since their part of the mating process is rather brief. (Assuming they aren't like the male penguin.)

I say we try to save 1%.

Who knows, might just beat the odds and save 2%.

Better yet, might save 50% and tell the German guy to re-work his numbers.
Like the Pennsylvania Lottery says "You gotta play to win!".

Hmm. The Germans have some experience in slaughtering entire populations, as a 'solution' to a problem. Maybe we should just ignore their advice on this one?

reply to post by loam


Last time I heard the statistics on surviving life was less than 1%. How do they know that the 1% survival rate was purely based on oil drenching as the means of death for these animals. Did they take 10 of them or 50,000 and do the study...makes a huge difference when it comes to numbers. If Audubon doesn't have any conclusive numbers for the survival of oil drenched birds I would suggest that neither does the German scientist that more than likely BP has hired to do the study. I would like to put out there that if they do anniliate all these birds based on the fact they arent going to survive anyway that they are mandated to do it in a humane way(BP CEOs etc..holding each one while they are injected etc)... hopefully more expensive than actually trying to do the right thing and save them... just a thought...

I heard this last week & I find it deplorable.
Listen up, folks: The only reason they are saying this is because it would HELP THEM SAVE MONEY!!!
I used to do wildlife rehabilitation & specialized in birds & water fowl. I don't believe their statement about a 1% survival rate. It's total BS. They are under the gun & have already been less than honest about how much oil is spilling into the Gulf.
I am more than prepared to go clean oil soaked birds. I would leave now, but I'm dog-sitting & am unable to go out of town at the moment. If I get there & they expect me to help euthanize these beautiful creatures, they're in for a big surprise & there will be a fight!

They got to do what they can to save as many as possible. How would you like to go to the hospital and be told.. well the survival rate for this operation is low.. so we're just going to kill you... sorry.

Cleaning these birds is done for the cameras and media.

It is good PR, regardless of the survival rate.

What is best for the birds is secondary to what is best for the viewing public and news media.

reply to post by Chadwickus

Will also help to repopulate the area after all is said and done.

Optomism must course through your vains. Chad.

Even in the face of what could be mankinds epic fail. Amazing.

XXN30

Do these guys just act stupid or are they really this stupid.

I'm gonna go with play'in dumb. Not stupid.

afterthought

They got to do what they can to save as many as possible. How would you like to go to the hospital and be told.. well the survival rate for this operation is low.. so we're just going to kill you... sorry.

Tell you the truth I have heard of quite a few cases.

[edit on 6-6-2010 by randyvs]