Quaker slaughter in FLA

[Heaven]

If theres anything I can do, I am in the Keys. Just let me know. There are huge flocks of Quakers all over the place down here. I can't imagine anyone wanting to harm the sweet babies.

[Beaks]

Yeah like suffocation is a fun way to die!!!!!!!!!, What needs to be done is have as change in the laws like they have done in texas.

The power companies are not allowed to touch ANY nest they have to call a rescue org to capture and/or relocate the colony, if they trash a nest they get to go to jail and dont get to collect anything but a court date.

I don't care how they are killing them it is still not cool and it will be taken care of in time just as soon as the right people are called(i will start calling tuesday)

John

Originally Posted by HareTrinity

If it's any reassurance, though; carbon monoxide (e.g. car exhaust) is supposed to be the quickest and easiest ways to die...

Even the conscious birds wouldn't have even felt short of breath; just slowly get giddy, fall unconscious, and die in what is, considering many methods of "pest destruction", a peaceful way to go... Afterall, rat poison still works by burning them up from inside-out.

Not that I support ANY method of "pest destruction"; the only reason wild animals start to live somewhere is because they're okay there, and if humans want to get rid of them, they should change the area (which usually includes simply cleaning up after themselves), not the state of the animals.

But, since you mentioned trying to get more people aware; petitionsite.com is relatively easy to log onto, and has a lot of viewers, so...

Maybe we should set up a petition there?

[Joel]

Thanks John, you da man!!!!!!! :eusa_clap

[guanohappens]

Please also credit Mattie Sue Athan as a co-author of the book, "Parrots in the City".

[Tiki]

I got a reply back from FLP today, not very encouraging and they didn't either deny they were doing it or say they were gonna stop doing it, nor do they seem to give a rat's behind about the birds:

Correspondence from FPL

Dear XXXX:

We would like to thank you for sharing your feelings about monk parakeets.
FPL is facing a serious problem with monk parakeets nesting on our electric structures. Based on current studies, it is estimated that the monk parakeet population will grow 14 times larger over the next 10 years if it is not managed. FPL has started to manage this problem in a more aggressive manner to ensure that our ability to provide reliable electric service will not be impaired by the monk parakeet nests on our structures.
FPL strongly encourages the nesting of monk parakeets in trees, but has to reduce the number of nests on our facilities.

Thank you again for your e mail.

Sincerely,


Ingrid
FPL Customer Care Center

Last night, we put this case in the newsletter so hopefully we'll get some more people complaining to FPL and they will take notice. This letter is obviously a canned response.

[Lynjupiter]

Originally Posted by guanohappens

Please also credit Mattie Sue Athan as a co-author of the book, "Parrots in the City".

Yes Mattie Sue Athans is also a coauthor sorry.

All we can do is keep sending FPL letters. There will be one stapled to my check every month when I send in my bill. Let them know that people are aware of what they are doing.

They do have a point. I am not ready to give up my electric for quakers to live safely. But there has to be other alternatives to death.

Lynda

[Beaks]

all they have to do is add bird protectors to their poles that cover them so they cannot be damaged by birds or other wildlife.

The state here made the power companies do it, the fpl is just too cheap to add them to their lines, end of story.

The government has to get into the mix or nothing will be done because SOME people would overlook the slaughter of thousands of birds so they can watch TV and dont care what happens as long as the power works.

Buy a generator and tell them if they dont stop their crap you will disconnect their service or just sit back and let it go on, writing to the electric companies will never do any good because they dont care as long as they can sell electricity.

The only way to do anything is to get on the governments butt and have the practice of killing nesting birds banned.

This crap is why so many animals are extinct because the people that pull the strings in the government(utility and oil companies) can do pretty much what they want because the people dont have enough guts to challange them in large numbers, i gurantee if a thousand people camped out on the governers lawn with signs somthing would be done and there would be national attention in the media.

It's time to start stepping on toes in this country just like the people did with the boston tea party, lets have a florida quaker party on the governers front lawn and help them pull their heads out of their butts.

John

[jmdavey]

I want to pass along a few excerpts from the Orlando Sentinel dated Feb 17, 2004.

Headline....
Birds just won't budge

The monk parakeet is an expensive nuisance to Florida Power & Light but has its champions and nurturers.

By Maya Bell | Miami Bureau
Posted February 17, 2004


MIAMI -- Demolish their nests, they rebuild them. Bombard them with lasers, noise or stink bombs, they shrug. Hang scarecrow predators in their midst, they ignore them.

So far, nothing but poison gas has dissuaded the monk parakeet, the state's most prolific and rapidly growing exotic species, from building its giant condo-style nests on power lines and high-voltage substations -- a habit that occasionally triggers outages.

After spending nearly $300,000 to encourage the lime-green urbanites to take up residence elsewhere, Florida's largest utility is scratching its collective corporate head.

"We've been outsmarted by a bird," said Winifred Perkins, Florida Power & Light's manager for environmental relations. "We're really challenged by this problem, and we're looking for a solution, but we're stumped."

....
FPL officials say they can't tally the number of outages or "momentaries" -- flickers of electricity -- that the Quakers cause, but they're frequent enough to be bothersome, even dangerous. One outage blamed on a Quaker nest left South Miami Hospital on emergency power, FPL spokeswoman Pat Davis said.
.....
Jon-Mark Davey, owner of five Quakers, including a hatchling rescued from an FPL nest, works hard to ensure that. The Deerfield Beach computer specialist launched Quakerville.com in 1995 to change the monk's underdog status. He empathizes with FPL because he has seen the damage done when nests short out transformers.

But he promises to make more noise than a flock of wild Quakers if the utility can't devise a better strategy than gassing the birds.

"FPL has a legitimate problem," Davey said, "but they need an engineering solution. They need to put their minds and money together and just do it."
--------------------

The above is from the newpaper article that was picked up by the AP wire and parts were circulated to every media outlet in the USA. JoAnn and I have met with the FP&L folks quoted above and were part of their call out program that has been inactive for several years. We were part of 12 areas in Florida that were once called upon to rescue babies. I know of first hand at least one rescue'r, not part of our group, that had over 500 babies in his feeding building from FPL rescues and NONE of us are being called anymore and I KNOW nests are down, I check on them frequently all over the South Florida area.

If there are concerned folks available for rescue purposes then we will contact the folks at FP&L again and see what is up. Please be aware that rescuing babies is NOT for everyone, there are unexpected things that happen, it's not like going to the store and picking up a bird in a little carrier or a box, sometimes it's a really bad experience due to power issues and natural causes. Sometimes there are more quakers in need than you can imagine. I have heard of stories where there were more than 50 babies that needed attention and they all had mites, that's a tough one to work out, and the rescuerer had 15 minutes from the call to get to the site fully prepared for anything. I don't say that to scare anyone off but sometimes it is really rough work.

Hre is a link I USED to have on the front page of the site but have moved it off in recent years. http://www.quakerville.net/nests/ It will give you a little overview of field work.

Jon-Mark Davey
Co-author Parrots In The City
http://quakerville.com

[yluvfl]

Lynda wrote about the murder of quakers in florida and I agree. I have found a wounderful adoption agency that has taken in some wild quakers for rehad do to the FPL electricutions they recieved. It is safe to say they are in good hands.

[Lynjupiter]

Originally Posted by jmdavey

I want to pass along a few excerpts from the Orlando Sentinel dated Feb 17, 2004
Hre is a link I USED to have on the front page of the site but have moved it off in recent years. http://www.quakerville.net/nests/ It will give you a little overview of field work.
Jon-Mark Davey
Co-author Parrots In The City
http://quakerville.com

Hello Jon-Mark and Welcome to BirdBoard. There are a lot of people here very interested in the plight of the wild quakers as you can see. Glad to have you here.
Lynda