Rfalconcam Forum

PLEASE HELP...
Our NYC Red Tailed Hawks need your help once again! Last year it was Pale Male's Sanctuary, Central Park, that posed a deadly threat to the hawks. Now, Bobby & Rosie, the much loved majestic pair of Red Tailed Hawks that reside in and around Washington Square Park, are seriously endangered in the same way.
The NYC Department of Parks &Recreation has placed an alarming number of toxin-filled rat traps in every area of the park and will not remove them. We need immediate action now. Your calls last year helped to persuade the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History to remove their traps. Please help us help the Hawks once again!!

Please call tomorrow, Thursday, December 12th, 9-5pm EST. Here are the names and numbers:

Sarah Neilson- (212) 408-0297, Exec. Director of the Washington Square Park Conservancy
Veronica M. White- (212) 360-1305, Commissioner NYC Parks Dept. Commissioner . ( Please call Ms. Neilson first, she usually will not answer nor get back to you, then let the Commissioner's office know that you tried and now need action.)
Tell them courteously in your own words:
1- That you are very disturbed about the rat poison traps in Washington Square
Park and concerned for the majestic hawks that live there.
2-How much you respect and love these hawks and why
3- That they and their offspring have been watched by thousands via a hawk cam and online blogs that document their lives. And how shameful it would be for the City if they were to be poisoned.
4-That there are other alternatives, such as:
-Emptying the garbage cans frequently and keeping them covered.
-Purchasing rat-proof trash cans and/or solar-powered waste compactors.
- Using rodent-repellant trash bags.
-Using snap traps rather than poison traps.
5-If food and shelter are not reduced, rat numbers can rebound quickly following lethal control measures by increasing breeding frequency and producing larger litter sizes.

Thank them and hope that they remove the poison soon.

You can email them also (and call when it is convenient for you).
Sarah.Neilson@parks.nyc.gov
hello@washingtonsquareparkconservancy.org
Veronica.white@parks.nyc.gov

Haven't they learned from other issues??? OMG, this is CARP!!! I'm in!!

Thanks, Donna! Blogger/watcher Roger_Paw took pics of 27 new poison rat traps that are located all around the area where Bobby and Rosie feed!  Ms. Neilson believes that the only time they should not have poison traps in the park is when fledglings are there-not taking into account that Bobby and Rosie are year-round residents.  Rosie was seen by watchers there about a week or so ago eating a dead rat she found, that was believed to be poisoned.  Fortunately, she only ate a little of it and she's been seen recently so she's OK.

Good grief-stop with the poison already!!!!  :rolleyes:

Just sent an email.  The mayor is so concerned with soda size; where is he for something important?

Thanks, Jeanne!

Done.

This species is legally protected in Canada, Mexico and the United States by the international Migratory Bird Treaty Act. In the United States, they are also protected by state, provincial and federal bird protection laws, making it illegal for anyone to keep hawks without a permit or to hunt them, disturb their nests or eggs - even collecting their feathers is against the law.

So in other words you can't have feathers, keep them, hunt them, disturb nests/eggs, but you can poison them.  Sick.  :(

I e-mailed all three.....

Dear People,

Please stop using the rat poison, which could ultimately kill the hawks, they also kill rats and eat poisoned rats.  Work on getting garbage cans covered and not overflowing.  Use rodent-repellent trash bags.  THIS SPECIES IS LEGALLY PROTECTED in Canada, US, and Mexico by the International Migratory Bird Treaty Act.  It's illegal for anyone to keep these hawks, hunt them, disturb nests or eggs, or even collect feathers, but it's ok to poison them?

Please think about this and thank you,
Nora.....

 :good post:

Thanks, Nora!  I sent 3 emails out this AM.  They just don't get that the Hawks are year-round residents but maybe we'll wake them up to the fact.  It worked when a bunch of us blitzed them last year with calls/emails when rat poison was found around Pale Male's territory and several RTH's died of secondary rodenticide poisoning. We'll see....

Here's a petition that people can sign too:

http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-murder-of-our-red-tailed-hawks-in-washington-square-park (http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-murder-of-our-red-tailed-hawks-in-washington-square-park)

I sent my 3 emails also, hope it works!!

                    :thankyou: I hope it works too!  Sign the petition too...they only need about 130 more signatures!

127 signatures now needed!

       
           :thumbsup: