Rfalconcam Forum

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland Hopkins International Airport workers have begun shooting gulls and geese as part of their plan to keep the skies around the airport free of nuisance birds, officials confirmed Friday.

"We do everything we're allowed to do -- harassing birds, shooing them away, lethal measures -- all for the safety of air travelers," said airport spokeswoman Jackie Mayo. "They have to realize that birds and planes don't mix."

The use of lethal force came to light this week after people parked at the north end of the airport on Brookpark Road -- a favorite spot for watching jets land and take off -- saw an airport employee firing a shotgun at gulls that were flying over the runway.

One of the witnesses snapped several photographs and sent them to The Plain Dealer. Some depicted the employee aiming the gun into the air, and others showed a dead gull lying beside the runway. The man later removed the carcass and drove away in a white pickup truck.

Airport officials acknowledged they have a federal permit to shoot birds that threaten to interfere with or damage aircraft during landings and takeoffs. But they declined to say whether the photographs depicted the use of lethal measures.

Hopkins Commissioner Fred Szabo said a jet struck a flock of gulls on Wednesday, and the dead bird on the runway was most likely a victim of that collision -- not of a gunshot.

"We have a pretty aggressive program here," Szabo said. "It's possible that he used lethal control, but there's no way to confirm that at this point. Lethal strategy is our last strategy of choice."

Szabo said the airport uses bird-dispersal techniques such as firing propane-powered cannons, broadcasting bird distress calls, posting effigies of hawks and owls and planting distasteful grasses by the runways.

But when all else fails, airports must resort to shooting the birds, said Richard Dolbeer of Sandusky, who spent his career as a government ornithologist devising ways to prevent bird strikes with airplanes.

Dolbeer said common birds such as gulls and geese eventually adapt to scare tactics and begin to ignore the horns and pyrotechnics once they realize they won't hurt them. So some of them must be killed, Dolbeer said.

"We explicitly outlined the steps needed to limit wildlife that poses a threat to aviation, and shotguns are one of them," said Dolbeer, now retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Research Center in Sandusky.

Dolbeer was thrust onto the national stage in January after a US Airways jet collided with a flock of Canada geese, forcing it to ditch in the Hudson River. All of the passengers survived, and the pilot was hailed as a hero.

The U.S. Department of Fish & Wildlife sets a limit on the number of birds that are allowed to be killed, and airport wildlife officers are required to document whenever lethal force is used, Szabo said.

In the past year, wildlife officers at Hopkins have shot 163 herring and ring-billed gulls, 40 Canada geese, 50 mourning doves and 37 killdeer, Szabo said.

At airports nationwide, about 90 percent of birds are dispersed without the need for lethal measures, said Carol Bannerman, a spokeswoman with the USDA's wildlife services. Wildlife officers at Hopkins also are permitted to shoot red foxes, groundhogs, coyotes and other animals that pose obstacles to airplanes.

"The taking of an occasional bird can be a useful deterrent because they see their friends die and they get scared," Dolbeer said. "These are federal permits to take common birds, not a James Bond 007 license to kill bald eagles or whatever they want to."

 :suspicious: >:( :tickedoff:

I really doubt if they did shoot a type of bird they weren't supposed to that they would actually report it.

Shooting foxes too.... can't they relocate them. grrrr

Maybe the just need to get a few falcons