June 29, 2006

Post reporter wins national press award

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The National Press Club honored Ken Dixon, the Connecticut Post's state Capitol reporter, for his coverage of last year's campaign by the United Illuminating Co. to rid infestation of monk parakeets from their utility poles in southwestern Connecticut.

Dixon's entry included a column and series of articles about UI's attempt last fall to capture parakeets in West Haven, Milford, Stratford and Bridgeport. A crew from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which ac-companied UI workers, asphyxiated 179 parrots in November and December. UI suspended the program after the Darien-based Friends of Animals filed a lawsuit.

The 52-year-old Dixon, who has covered the state Capitol since 1994, will be given the Ann Cottrell Free award for animal reporting during the National Press Club's annual dinner on July 17.

A 1976 graduate of Ohio University, Dixon joined the newspaper in 1977 and has won numerous state and re-gional awards and twice was honored by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

The Washington-based NPC judged 280 entries in two dozen categories of print and broadcast reporting. “At a time when journalism is under attack, the contest reminds us of the wonderful work that is done every day by thousands of reporters, editors, correspondents and producers,'' said Jonathan D. Salant, a re-porter for Bloomberg News who is president of the NPC.

Pole-dwelling birds facing wrath of UI

Posted by todd on 4:25 PM | Comments (0)

Thu, 17 Nov 2005

By KEN DIXON
dixon.connpost@snet.net

The United Illuminating Co., with support from federal and state officials, including the Connecticut Audubon Society, has begun an eradication program to destroy monk parakeet nests and kill off entire bird colonies.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that at least 47 of the large, bright-green tropical birds were humanely killed this week in a procedure that exposes them to large amounts of carbon dioxide.

Priscilla Feral, president of the Norwalk-based Friends of Animals, called it the sanctioned murder of intelligent birds that is being subsidized by taxpayers and customers of the utility.

“They belong to the planet, not the corporation,'' Feral said. “This is a draconian measure and I'm go-ing to raise hell.''

The $125,000 program, targeting more than 100 stick nests in utility poles, began in West Haven this week and will expand to Milford, Stratford, Bridgeport and beyond, UI officials said.

The gregarious cowled birds, which have colonized much of the Connecticut coast over the last 30 years, are being captured at night with nets by specially trained UI crews and turned over to U.S. De-partment of Agriculture personnel.

The USDA officials euthanize most of the birds and use others for research, according to Al Carbone, spokesman for UI, who stressed that bird nests in utility poles have contributed to at least two fires, in-cluding one last summer.

Corey Slavitt, a public affairs spokeswoman with the USDA's animal and plant health inspection serv-ice in Washington, confirmed that UI workers are giving the animals to the USDA.

“The reason it's being done at night is because that's when adult populations congregate at their roosts,'' Slavitt said. He added that the birds are actually parrots (Myiopsitta monachus) native to the jungles of South America who have naturalized themselves. They are not native to this area.

Indeed, Dennis Schain, communications director for the state Department of Environmental Protec-tion, said that the birds have been declared an invasive species with potential detrimental effects on the environment.

“The DEP is, of course, in the business of protecting wildlife and the state's natural resources,'' Schain said. “In this case, however, the monk parakeet is an invasive species; it is not protected under any fed-eral or state laws, and nests on utility poles are creating a fire hazard and a threat to reliable electrical service. We understand the seriousness of the situation facing UI.''

Feral, a longtime animal rights activist, said the program is another example of federal tax dollars be-ing used to kill animals to protect corporate profits.

“This should get people enraged,'' Feral said. “They're darling animals and the DEP has long wanted to kill anything that's not a native, as if we ourselves are natives.''

Feral said the birds, which range from the coast up to the Housatonic River Valley and as far north as New Britain, have adapted and thrived like many other immigrants to this country.

They usually build their nests in evergreen trees, but expanded to utility poles. The story of their settling in Bridgeport is traced to a broken crate of birds at Kennedy International Airport in New York about 30 years ago.

Several calls for comment, placed to Milan Bull, senior director of science and conservation for the Fairfield-based Connecticut Audubon Society, were not returned Wednesday.

But UI's Carbone forwarded a CAS statement that says the parrots' expanding range has the potential to affect native birds and has created “economic and public safety impacts'' with nests on utility poles.

“The Connecticut Audubon Society understands these facts and supports the management program of the United Illuminating Company and the United States Department of Agriculture to coordinate the removal of monk parakeets and their nests from UI distribution equipment due to concerns regarding public health & safety,'' the statement read.
Carbone said some of the targeted nests weigh more than 200 pounds and house up to 40 parrots and their young.

He said that last July, a transformer fire was linked to a bird colony. In 2003, a fire at another utility pole resulted in the high-voltage transformer falling to the ground and exploding.
“They pose a serious risk to public health and safety and our ability to provide reliable service,'' Car-bone said, adding that before nest removal, some customers are being told to anticipate brief power outages.

Parakeets' plight protested

Posted by todd on 3:29 PM | Comments (1)

Fri, 18 Nov 2005

Parakeets' plight protested

UI eradicating nesting birds it considers threat to service

By KEN DIXON

dixon.connpost@snet.net

Animal rights activists began a life-or-death campaign Thursday to persuade the United Illuminating Co. to call off its monk parakeet eradication efforts.

“The great majority of people think these birds are pretty and shouldn't be exterminated,'' said Priscilla Feral, president of the nonprofit Friends of Animals. “We sent out an alert, and we're channel-ing that vocal opposition to the chairman of the [UI] board, Nathaniel Woodson.''

Feral said that thousands of e-mails were sent to members, targeting Woodson, CEO of UI's parent company.

She said the phones at her group's Norwalk headquarters were ringing steadily in reaction to Thurs-day's article in the Connecticut Post that first detailed the eradication program.

The UI, however, will continue tearing down more than 100 nests on utility poles from West Haven to Fairfield and turning over captured monk parakeets to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for research and euthanasia, spokesmen said. The utility company claims the huge stick nests present a hazard, caus-ing fires and power outages.

USDA workers euthanize the bright-green tropical birds in carbon dioxide chambers, said Corey Slavitt, a USDA spokeswoman in Washington. The method is approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association, she said, adding the program is aimed at balancing the needs of humans and ani-mals.

Meanwhile, Dwight Smith, chairman of the Biology Department at Southern Connecticut State Uni-versity, whose graduate students have studied the parakeets, called for a moratorium on the killings.

Smith said he's “irritated and angry.'' He said that the state Department of Environmental Protection and UI have consistently avoided questions about monk parakeets, as whole colonies of the birds myste-riously vanished in recent years.

“If they need to remove them from the poles, why kill them?'' Smith said. “A study needs to be done. At least, why don't we have a round-table discussion?''

Milan Bull, senior director of science and conservation for the Fairfield-based Connecticut Audubon Society, said that even though the state has classified the parakeets as an “invasive species,'' they appar-ently do not compete with native birds for habitat or food.

“UI's position is that any bird that builds a nest in their poles deserves to die,'' Feral said, calling for a regional mobilization of animal-rights activists. Feral called UI's campaign “hysterical.''

Al Carbone, spokesman for UI, said the company was fielding “a lot'' of news media inquiries Thurs-day.

He said he spoke with Feral, who “expressed her disappointment with what's going on.'' But he said UI will continue the nighttime removal and capture plan.

As of Wednesday, 47 of the birds had been killed. Slavitt did not have an updated number.

Steve Baldwin, a Manhattan Internet marketer who runs a Web page about monk parakeets in Brook-lyn, said Consolidated Edison, the utility there, submitted to public pressure to keep the birds alive, even if the nests on utility poles are demolished.

“I'm absolutely outraged,'' he said of the UI eradication program. “It looks like Connecticut is wiping them out and I'm very, very angry about this.''

Baldwin said Con Ed monitors about 130 nests in Brooklyn, most of them centered around Brooklyn College.

Mark Johnson of suburban Boston, who runs the nonprofit Foster Parrots Limited, said that PSE&G, the giant New Jersey utility, also has favored the nonviolent way of removing monk parakeets when possible.

Rather than nighttime confrontation with a colony in the autumn, Johnson and Baldwin say PSE&G uses a springtime, daylight tactic, destroying the nests but letting the animals fly away and establish new nests for the breeding season.

“These parrots are not a danger to any species,'' Johnson said. He said that regular maintenance of poles would help keep the birds away and in the large fir trees and deciduous hardwoods where most of the estimated 1,000 Connecticut monk parakeets live.

Bull, of the Connecticut Audubon Society, said that while Audubon supports this eradication effort, the birds have carved out an ecological niche for themselves since they arrived around 1971.

“They're great birds,'' he said. He added that winter weather restricts them to the coast, where they feed on rose hips, beach plums and bayberry.

“In South America they're considered an agricultural pest,'' Bull said. “I have not noticed any situa-tion, beyond a peripheral level, where monk parakeets have been competing with native birds.''

More information about the monk parakeets is available at www.friendsofanimals.org; www.brooklynparrots.com and www.edgewaterparrots.com.

Activists take to streets for put-upon parakeets

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Sat, 19 Nov 2005

By KEN DIXON

dixon.connpost@snet.net

Buoyed by a nationwide uproar in the animal-rights community, activists took to the streets of West Haven Friday night in an attempt to halt United Illuminating Co.'s eradication of monk parakeets.

The utility said it plans to continue the operation, which was in its fourth night, targeting more than 100 bird colonies on utility poles between West Haven and Fairfield.

Federal officials in Washington, D.C., said Friday that at least 80 of the parrots had been killed and their bodies kept for research by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Meanwhile, state Rep. Richard Roy, D-Milford, whose city is home to hundreds of the squawking, bright-green birds and their thatched-stick nests, said Friday he would seek a meeting with the state Department of Environmental Protect in an attempt to cease the slaughter.

The chief spokesman for the DEP, Dennis Schain, said Friday that the department would meet with Roy whenever he wishes. A spokesman for United Illuminating agreed.

And the head of a national group that supports monk parakeets, which are also known as Quaker parakeets, said Friday that she is seeking legal grounds to apply for an injunction against UI's eradica-tion program.

Brenda Piper, president of the Quaker Parakeet Society, told the Connecticut Post that a 2003 Con-necticut law that allows for the “shooting,'' - but not asphyxiating - of crows, cowbirds, pigeons and monk parakeets may become the focus of a legal attack.

Piper said there are numerous options to killing the birds, which build nests on utility poles. Monk parakeets, because of the length of their tails, are actually parrots (Myiopsitta monachus) that are native to the jungles of South America. They are believed to have arrived here in the 1970s in a crate that broke open at Kennedy Airport in New York.

She said her society would help relocate the birds out of state if UI and the USDA give them the seized animals.

“United Illuminating must feel the pressure,'' said Priscilla Feral, president of the Darien-based Friends of Animals, Inc., which mobilized a national effort to stop the killing of the birds that have lived in the state since the early 1970s.

By 8:45 p.m. Friday, about 30 bird supporters were picketing and petitioning at Capt. Thomas Boule-vard and Campbell Avenue in West Haven, protesting the UI bird removal.

Feral called the event Operation Parakeet. “The people who can halt it are UI,'' Feral said, blaming the DEP for not recommending nest-removal alternatives that do not include killing birds.

Al Carbone, spokesman for UI, said that by Friday afternoon about 25 nests in West Haven had been demolished and the monk parakeets turned over the USDA personnel on the scene. The birds are then put in carbon dioxide chambers and asphyxiated.

Carbone said the utility has also received “a few'' calls and e-mails of protest, although Feral believes hundreds of phone calls and e-mails have been directed at the utility.

“All along we've gotten customer complaints about the size of the nests,'' Carbone said, stressing that the stick colonies have caused transformer fires and power outages.

Roy, who this year took over the House chairmanship of the General Assembly's joint Environment Committee, said he believes there is a nonlethal way to clear the utility poles and let the birds fly off to build nests elsewhere.

Schain said that a top wildlife expert in the DEP spoke with Roy on Friday and the department was ready for further discussions with lawmakers.

Sen. George L. Gunther, R-Stratford, whose district also supports hundreds of parrots, agreed Friday that the nests can be taken off poles without killing the birds.

“To me, they are a very pretty bird,'' Gunther said. “They're a pain in the neck, but I don't think they're competing with native birds. I don't think they should be terminated.''

Lawmakers hope UI spares parrots

Posted by todd on 3:27 PM | Comments (1)

Wed, 23 Nov 2005

By KEN DIXON

dixon.connpost@snet.net

HARTFORD — While many plan their Thanksgiving Day turkey dinners, animals rights activists will rally at United Illuminating Co. headquarters to baste and shame its chief executive into saving shore-line parrots.

Public reaction to the capture and killing of monk parakeets in southwestern Connecticut has been overwhelmingly negative, according to a leading lawmaker who is co-chairman of the Legislature's En-vironment Committee.

The lawmaker, Rep. Richard Roy, D-Milford, said he will meet next week with state Department of Environmental Protection officials to discuss possible alternatives. He said UI has also been invited to next Tuesday's meeting.

Speaker of the House James A. Amann, D-Milford, said Tuesday that he's disappointed that the utility could not find a non-lethal means to tear down the birds' huge stick nests that UI has targeted in utility poles from West Haven to Fairfield.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday that the death toll has reached about 120 parrots, euthanized by USDA personnel after their capture by UI crews.

Albert Carbone, a UI spokesman, said Tuesday that the parrot roundup is expected to resume tonight, after work was suspended Monday and Tuesday due to rain.

Laurel Lundstrom, program director for the Darien-based Friends of Animals Inc., said dozens of ac-tivists are expected to protest the second week of UI's planned season-long campaign.

Today's planned rally, set for noon to 2 p.m. at the utility's Church Street offices in New Haven, is aimed particularly at UI's chief executive officer, Nathaniel Woodson, she said.

“We're basically there to tell Nathaniel Woodson to tear down the firewall between himself and his many critics,'' Lundstrom said. “We've asked over and over for a public discussion and we haven't gotten one and we want it now.''

Roy, who said his messages have been running “about 30-to-1'' in favor of protecting the parrots from death, said a meeting has been set with DEP officials next Tuesday to discuss the issue. He said UI is ex-pected to attend.

“We're getting an overwhelming number of calls from people who want to save the birds,'' Roy said in a phone interview. “I don't think we should discuss it without UI being there.

“If we can do this without killing the birds and do it successfully, I would go that way, but I don't know what alternatives are available,'' Roy said. “I know UI has been working with the DEP right from the very beginning, but I don't know what I can and cannot do until I get more information.''

Last week, UI began a program to destroy the parrot colonies in utility poles, most of them in West Haven.

The USDA personnel take the birds from UI crews and insert them in carbon dioxide chambers, where the birds die from asphyxiation.

Since first reported last week in the Connecticut Post, bird lovers throughout the region and nation have reacted against the project. Many say the nests on utility poles can be destroyed without killing the birds.

The heavy, thickly thatched nests have been linked to transformer fires and power outages.

The birds are “colorful and they kind of lift people's spirits,'' said Roy, quoting DEP officials who told him that 250 calls have been received asking that the extermination program end.

“Politically it would be nice to come back with a solution to move the birds and keep the lines clear for UI and avoid have the birds coming back,'' he said.

Most southwestern Connecticut parrot colonies reside in fir trees and hardwoods like oak. The birds, native to South America, first came to Connecticut in the early 1970s.

Roy said that most of the calls he has received at home and in the Capitol have been simple, “nice'' calls hoping the birds' lives can be spared.

However, UI's Carbone said company officials have received several threatening e-mails that they have turned over to law enforcement authorities.

“We're investigating a few e-mails that were considered threatening and we're dealing with the appro-priate authorities,'' Carbone said.

He said UI has not received official notification of Roy's planned meeting with the DEP next week, but company officials will be available.

“We have gotten a lot of inquiries and comments, and prioritized them among neighbors of the parrot nests, customers in the service territory and others outside our service areas,'' Carbone said. “We're still very clear on our position.''

Ken Dixon, who covers the Capitol, can be reached at (860) 549-4670.

Opinion: Thanksgiving: There's nothing like a little leftover bird

Posted by todd on 3:26 PM | Comments (0)

Sun, 27 Nov 2005

Yum. There's nothing like a little leftover Thanksgiving monk parakeet with a touch of mayonnaise and a dollop of cranberry sauce.
Oops, wrong bird. And that, in an eggshell, sums up the public-policy issues that have flown the nest and remain on the wing in southwestern Connecticut as United Illuminating Co.'s parrot-eradication program begins its third week.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which UI is using to kill the birds its crews capture under cover of darkness, says the death count of monk parakeets “humanely euthanized under methods approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association'' is about 120.
That might be 10 percent of the coastline population of these tough, hilarious birds, some of which, unfortunately for all of us, nested in UI utility poles while most made their nests in big fir trees and oaks.
The squawking of the bright-green parrots outside the bedroom window on a summer's morning may be as close as I ever come to a tropical vacation. But I've never lived with a stick nest the size of a Volks-wagen around a nearby transformer, and haven't had a power outage because of a bird- related fire.
The utility, whose New Haven headquarters is now the focus of animal-rights activists including the Darien-based Friends of Animals Inc. and other monk parakeet support groups in New York and Massa-chusetts, started the extermination program with no public notice.
Al Carbone, the utility's public relations spokesman, in an uncomfortable quote, calls the UI/USDA death squads a “solution,'' into which the utility was forced.Carbone said the crews started in West Ha-ven and will focus on one town at a time as UI works to pull down 103 nests along the coast to Fairfield.
But there's anecdotal evidence that on days when protesters were looking for them, UI trucks drove down to the Lordship in Stratford to take care of business.
“It's like a sneaky utility,'' said Virginia Norko of Lordship. “If I knew they were coming, I'd go out there and throw rocks at the nests.'' She recalled the recent night when four vehicles and a Stratford po-lice patrol car went after birds on Third Avenue.
“It's the taxpayers paying for this and I don't want to,'' Norko said in a phone interview last week.
It's also the UI ratepayers' money. Some activists are plotting a possible boycott of holiday lights to subtract from UI's bottom line.
Enter Rep. Dick Roy, D-Milford, co-chairman of the Legislature's Environment Committee, who'll meet with Department of Environmental Protection officials and UI personnel this week.
There, people may ask whether the solution to anything is death. The compromise would be for UI to wake up and smell the PR, then call a news conference to announce an “initiative'' to “delay'' the pro-gram until spring. Then, they could change tactics, pull the nests down and let the birds fly elsewhere. Then, UI, banking their goodwill, could invest a little ratepayers' money in keeping their utility poles clear of nests.
Once this parrot business gets settled, maybe we can tackle the 71,000 Connecticut children and 284,000 adults, who are without health insurance.
That would be a bird of a different color. Ken Dixon' can be reached at (860) 549-4670 or e-mail him as dixon.connpost@snet.net.

State can't halt birds' execution

Posted by todd on 3:25 PM | Comments (1)

Wed, 30 Nov 2005

Animal rights group outraged at UI, seeking injunction to halt process

By KEN DIXON

dixon.connpost@snet.net

HARTFORD - Lawmakers admitted Tuesday that they are helpless to stop The United Illuminating Co. from having monk parakeets - nesting on more than 100 utility poles in southwestern Connecticut - eradicated.

Utility officials said they would try to find a “more humane'' way of evicting the birds. However, that would occur only after this round of nests are removed and hundreds of monk parakeets are killed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture by the end of the year or early 2006.

State Rep. Richard Roy, D-Milford, who has taken a lot of heat from bird lovers opposed to the eradica-tion program, said he hopes that by next spring, the utility will adopt a nonlethal alternative to get rid of the green squawking birds, which, despite their name, are actually parrots, because of their long tails.

“Obviously, we cannot, for the moment, stop what's happening,'' Roy, co-chairman of the Environment Committee, said Tuesday at a news conference.

His statements followed a 90-minute closed-door meeting attended by at least 21 people, including Speaker of the House James A. Amann, D-Milford, other lawmakers, environmental experts and utility officials.

“It's a concern for a lot of people,'' Amann said afterward. “But it's a lot more complicated than remov-ing a nest.''

Roy said he will ask the state's congressional delegation for assistance in changing the federal law, while he hopes for further dialogue with UI and possibly legislation next year to foster a nonlethal re-moval alternative.

“Certainly the people of this state have been letting us know that they are unhappy,'' Roy said. “We're going to continue to work with UI to see if we can come up with some programs that work.''

Roy said that solutions might include extending the height of utility poles to attract nests above trans-formers.

Roy said that another remedy would be for UI to monitor its poles more closely and remove smaller nests before they become large ones. In some cases, they grow to several hundred pounds and house up to 40 parrots.

Utility officials said they will continue to capture birds and turn them over to the agriculture depart-ment, which has killed at least 139 in carbon dioxide chambers since the program began two weeks ago.

“UI was very happy to be invited to this meeting and this continues to be a significant public health and safety issue for us,'' Albert Carbone, the utility's spokesman, said of the $125,000 eradication pro-gram.

He said that UI would work with state and federal officials to find “a solution that's more humane.''

Earlier, Carbone said that 80 of the 103 targeted nests in West Haven, Milford, Stratford and Bridge-port have been visited by UI crews.

Carbone said the bird nests have caused up to a dozen power outages per year, as well as four fires since 2002 in West Haven, Milford, Stratford and Bridgeport.

Carbone, Roy and David Leff, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protec-tion, said a 1999 federal law essentially forces the USDA to kill the monk parakeets because they have been classified as an invasive species.

According to recent Christmas bird counts in Connecticut run by the National Audubon Society, there are at least 1,200 monk parakeets along coastal Connecticut.

Priscilla Feral, president of the Darien-based Friends of Animals Inc., complained that Roy prevented her from participating in the session, even though her group's members helped force the meeting by sending hundreds of complaints to lawmakers and DEP and UI officials.

“Rep. Roy said the meeting was to discuss the public outcry, so to be excluded is rude and disrespect-ful to the people who said he was responding to,'' Feral said outside the Legislative Office Building offices of majority House Democrats.

Feral said Friends of Animals will continue to seek grounds for an injunction to stop the killing of the birds.

In Washington on Tuesday, Corey Slavitt, spokeswoman for the USDA, said that the remains of the dead birds are being transferred to the National Wildlife Research Center in Gainesville, Fla.

Struggle brings arrest for parakeet protester

Posted by todd on 3:24 PM | Comments (0)

Fri, 02 Dec 2005

By KEN DIXON
dixon.connpost@snet.net

Julie Cook, a nursing student arrested this week while trying to protect monk parakeets from United Illuminating Co. crews on her West Haven street, said Thursday that she'll do the same again even if it means another evening in jail.

“I can't live with myself if I see this in front of my eyes,'' she said. “I'm as guilty as them if I stand by and don't do anything. This is our neighborhood.''

Cook, who confronted UI and U.S. Department of Agriculture personnel on Ocean Avenue, was booked on breach of peace charges Wednesday at 9 p.m. in the first physical confrontation between bird lovers and the crews that are exterminating more than 100 bird colonies in southwestern Connecticut.

A witness to the arrest, Marc Johnson, a Massachusetts parrot expert who filmed the scene, said that Cook was loud, but not violent.

Cook, Johnson and other animal-rights activists said Thursday that UI's bird slaughter is the end re-sult of years of deferred maintenance, in which bird nests grew for eight years or more, before the utility brought in the federal government for a taxpayer-financed eradication campaign.

A USDA spokeswoman said Thursday that the number of parrots euthanized with carbon dioxide gas by department employees, at the request of UI, has reached about 154.

And John Olsen, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, whose union members are employed as UI line crews, said it's no secret that companies postpone maintenance to prop up sagging bottom lines and understaffed, aging workforces.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell, in her first public statement about the bird roundup, said Thursday it's a federal case dictated by a 1999 law requiring captive non-native species to be killed.

Meanwhile as the third week of the UI program continued, the Darien-based Friends of Animals Inc. on Thursday called for a two-prong attempt to hit UI in its bottom line.

Priscilla Feral, president of the group, asked for UI customers to show support for the birds by not turning on holiday lights on their lawns and homes.

She also said Friends of Animals, which will stage a protest tonight in West Haven, is asking UI cus-tomers to pay their bills as late as possible, so UI cannot invest the money or draw interest on it.

A UI spokesman, Albert Carbone, said Thursday that the utility respects the rights of consumers to demonstrate their opinions, but the eradication campaign will continue.

He denied that the utility had purposely postponed maintenance on the utility poles.

But Cook, 37, said in an interview that the nest in a utility pole in front of her and her husband's Ocean Avenue home near the Milford border had not been touched during the eight years or so they've lived there.

“We had just gotten home and I saw them there and I ran and put myself under the nest, then they moved out and I followed them three, four houses down the block,'' Cook said. “I had written to UI and said, `If I see you guys in my neighborhood, I'll try to stop it because this is not right.' ''

West Haven police, who accompany UI crews, warned Cook to leave or they would arrest her. She ended up handcuffed, fingerprinted, photographed and held in jail until almost midnight, after her hus-band turned over the $100 bail.

West Haven police did not return a call for comment Thursday. Cook, a nursing student at Southern Connecticut State University, said she doesn't recall seeing UI deal with any of the nests in her neigh-borhood and they haven't had any bird-related power outages.

Johnson, a parrot expert who captured the arrest on videotape, said that residents canvassed in West Haven neighborhoods agree that UI has let the nests grow unabated for years.

Carbone, in a phone interview Thursday, said police always accompany UI crews and that over the last few days e-mails supporting the eradication program have increased.

He said that the sheer number of the 79 targeted nests in West Haven made it hard to keep up with the monk parakeet colonies and that the company made a sincere effort to find other ways to get rid of the nests without killing birds.

On the issue of a potential boycott of UI, Carbone said ratepayers are free to express themselves.

“We encourage our customers to use conservation methods in terms of electricity,'' he said.

More than 1,200 of the gregarious birds live in thatched-stick colonies in trees and utility poles along the coast. The company targeted 103 nests between West Haven and Fairfield during a planned six-week capture and nest-destruction program. Carbone stressed that it's not UI, but the USDA, killing the birds.

Rep. Richard F. Roy, D-Milford, co-chairman of the Legislature's Environment Committee, said Thursday he will ask U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, to help find a remedy to the controversy. He said that a 1999 federal law seems to be the chief hurdle in attempts to stop UI's program.

Rell agreed. “It isn't something that we have control over and I know that the individuals have been talking with legislators, but as you know it is regulated by the Department of Agriculture on a federal level,'' Rell said.

Feral, the FOA president, said a rally and candlelight vigil will be held tonight in West Haven, start-ing at 7 p.m.

Ken Dixon, who covers the Capitol, can be reached at (860) 549-4670.

Activists file complaint to stop parrot killings

Posted by todd on 3:23 PM | Comments (1)

Tue, 06 Dec 2005

By KEN DIXON

dixon.connpost@snet.net

HARTFORD — Animal-rights activists will appeal to the Superior Court in New Haven today to stop the United Illuminating Co.'s controversial monk parakeet eradication program.

In a one-page statement, a lawyer with a Manchester law firm representing the Friends of Animals warned UI officials Monday that the civil complaint demands an immediate halt to the program.

They charge that the company did not explore other ways to demolish the huge stick nests without killing the birds. They also claim that other species of birds that also live in the parrot nests are being harmed.

But a company official, who declined to comment because he had not seen the document as of late Monday afternoon, said that most of the birds in 103 targeted nests on UI utility poles have already been removed and killed.

The spokesman, Al Carbone, told the Connecticut Post Monday that he expects the actual destruction of the nests to begin this week, after all the structures have been emptied. Hooks will be attached to pull the nests down; UI will temporarily shut off electric service to some customers, Carbone said.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is euthanizing monk para-keets after UI crews remove them, said she believes the only way the program can be halted would be for the state General Assembly to rule that the birds are not invasive.

Priscilla Feral, president of the Darien-based Friends of Animals, said Monday that the lawsuit charges that the extermination of the bright green birds, which live in thatched colonies along the coast, violates state environmental law.

“We intend to prove that feasible, prudent alternatives to killing parakeets exist,'' she said. “There has been no proof shown that monk parakeets damage the ecosystem, and they shouldn't be considered an invasive species.''

The utility claims the birds' large stick nests cause power outages and fires. The eradication program is mostly focused in West Haven, with other nests in Milford, Stratford, Bridgeport and Fairfield.

Carbone said the destruction of the nests couldn't begin until all resident birds were captured and turned over to the USDA crews, which have been asphyxiating them in carbon dioxide chambers.

Monk parakeets are actually classified as parrots, despite the name.

Corey L. Slavitt, spokeswoman for the USDA, said Monday that there has not been an update on the number of birds killed. By last week, about 154 parrots had been killed.

Over the last three weeks, bird lovers from throughout the state and nation have called UI and the Friends of Animals in an attempt to halt the killing. Many cite programs in New Jersey and New York City, where the nests are torn off utility poles in the spring and the birds released unharmed.

E.J. McAdams, executive director of the New York City Audubon Society, said Monday that there are numerous monk parakeet colonies in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.

“We know where all the nests are and a number of our members enjoy them,'' McAdams said.

Slavitt, the USDA spokeswoman, said a UI subcontractor asked for federal assistance in killing the birds because other removal efforts had not worked. She said the birds cannot be relocated or given for adoption, because of their status as an invasive species.

“The Connecticut General Assembly could vote to make them non-invasive,'' Slavitt said.

Parakeet case charges dropped

Posted by todd on 3:23 PM | Comments (1)

Thu, 08 Dec 2005

Parakeet case charges dropped

Trying to save birds, West Haven woman had confronted UI workers

By KEN DIXON

dixon.connpost@snet.net

State prosecutors said Wednesday they will drop criminal charges against the West Haven nursing student who confronted a United Illuminating Co. crew in an attempt to save monk parakeets from eradication.

Mark Hurley, assistant state's attorney, said he and Mary M. Galvin, state's attorney for the Judicial District of Ansonia and Milford, will ask a judge next Tuesday to vacate a breach-of-peace charge that resulted from Julie Cook's arrest Nov. 30.

Hurley declined further comment. On Nov. 17, the Connecticut Post reported that UI had started an eradication campaign of euthanizing birds on a Florida model.

The issue attracted nationwide attention from bird lovers and animal-rights groups that criticized UI for killing birds, when utilities in New York and New Jersey had removed the parakeets' sometimes-large nests from utility poles without exterminating the birds.

Animal-rights advocates, whose lawsuit resulted in UI this week backing away from capturing addi-tional monk parakeets, hailed the decision not to prosecute Cook, who became irate when she saw UI crews capturing birds on Ocean Avenue and then turning them over to the U.S. Department of Agricul-ture to be killed by asphyxiation.

“I wish I had done more for the birds that are now dead,'' Cook said.

“There are so few of them left. But this is a small fight in a bigger war.''

Priscilla Feral, president of Darien-based Friends of Animals Inc., said possibly hundreds of monk parakeets may have evaded UI's eradication effort, which ended this week in state Superior Court, where Friends of Animals withdrew a lawsuit and UI agreed to stop capturing the birds through the end of the year.

Before UI's program, more than 1,200 of the birds lived in thatched-stick nests in fir trees, oak trees and utility poles in the region.

“If they had killed all the birds they intended to capture, we think one-third to one-half of Connecti-cut's population of monk parakeets would have been destroyed,'' Feral said.

A state-regulated monopoly, UI waited eight years or more before attempting to tear down 103 nests between West Haven and Fairfield, some of which weighed more than 200 pounds and housed up to 40 birds.

Laurel Lundstrom, program director for Friends of Animals, said she has received reports from resi-dents saying the birds are returning to the nests where UI had captured them.

Group wants protection for birds

Posted by todd on 3:20 PM | Comments (1)

Fri, 13 Jan 2006

Group wants protection for birds

Recent deal protecting parakeets expired at end of 2005

By KEN DIXON

dixon.connpost@snet.net

Animal-rights activists on Thursday asked the state Superior Court to permanently protect south-western Connecticut's colorful monk parakeets from the United Illuminating Co., the Connecticut Post has learned.

The lawsuit, which was being delivered to UI attorneys and the court on Thursday, is aimed at saving the parakeets from further eradication, following the recent killing of 179 birds by the U.S. Department of Agriculture at UI's request.

Utility officials Thursday night said they would not comment on pending litigation.

But they restated a previous commitment to seeking an alternative to keep electric poles clear of nests, without killing the gregarious birds that have made the coastline their home since the early 1970s.

Priscilla Feral, president of the Darien-based Friends of Animals, said Thursday that the request is a follow-up to a showdown in New Haven Superior Court last month, when UI agreed to suspend the pro-gram of capturing and euthanizing the birds.

“What UI committed to the last time in court was a moratorium that would only last until the end of 2005. We seek a permanent injunction and ask for judgment that requires UI to conduct maintenance on the poles and prevent the nesting,'' Feral said in an interview.

The suit claims the parrots, which live in colonies of up to 40 birds in thatched nests in trees and util-ity poles, are now an important part of the Connecticut ecosystem.

Friends of Animals claims UI has neglected routine maintenance on the poles and should be forced to use new ways to clear them off without capturing and killing them.

In November and December, UI crews went to 103 nests in West Haven, Milford, Stratford and Bridge-port and removed birds, handing them to USDA crews that asphyxiated the birds using carbon-dioxide gas. It was a $125,000 program that began the week of Nov. 14.

The suit claims that numerous other birds, including song sparrows, house finches and great horned owls, also use the parrot nests for shelter.

“The presence of the Monk Parakeet, a strict herbivore, is a benign effect on other local species and may actually increase numbers and variety of wildlife in an otherwise ecologically barren urban envi-ronment,'' the suit says.

The utility's eradication effort was first reported by the Post, setting off a storm of protest within the region and nation, particularly among monk parakeet aficionados in Brooklyn, N.Y., and New Jersey, where utility companies have developed non-lethal ways to clear their poles.

Al Carbone, spokesman for UI, said Thursday that the destruction of the 103 nests was completed last week.

Carbone would not comment directly on the lawsuit, which he had not seen, but said company policy prevented him from talking about pending litigation. He said that during the cleanup of the nests, work-ers found evidence that the birds had gnawed on power lines.

“They found that a lot of the insulation on the wires was chewed up, which was a fire hazard and a threat to public health and safety,'' Carbone said, adding that workers taped up the gaps in the insula-tion.

He said the company didn't have an agenda against the bird that requires killing them.

“We're willing to monitor the existing locations and work with other utilities and state and federal of-ficials to develop legitimate, practical, non-lethal control methods,'' Carbone said.

Parrots welcome here

Posted by todd on 3:19 PM | Comments (0)

Sun, 15 Jan 2006

Parrots welcome here

Built for the birds

Group constructs alternatinative nesting after UI clears utility poles

By KEN DIXON

dixon.connpost@snet.net

A few days after United Illuminating Co. crews tore down their nests, a group of tenacious monk parakeets was back at work Saturday, rebuilding their thatched home atop a utility pole on Ocean Drive in West Haven.

Down the coast, on Second Avenue near the corner of Ocean Avenue in the Lordship section of Strat-ford, more of the pesky parrots were also reconstructing a stick nest high up on an electric pole.

They're the survivors of a UI extermination campaign that was suspended last month after animal rights activists from throughout the state and across the nation first squawked, then filed a lawsuit to stop the killing.

The electric utility relented after 179 birds were killed among a statewide population estimated at more than 1,000.

In all, 103 nests from West Haven to Bridgeport were destroyed in UI's $125,000 eradication program that was supported by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Now, both sides agree, is the time to test non-lethal alternatives to let the parrots live without nesting in the utility poles to which they've become attracted in the more than 30 years they have lived in Con-necticut, New York and New Jersey.

While a new complaint to permanently cease parrot killing is pending in Superior Court in New Ha-ven - filed last week by the Norwalk-based Friends of Animals - bird lovers hope to develop alternative nesting sites that will attract the parrots away from further confrontations with United Illuminating crews.

At about 10 a.m. Saturday, in a tall oak tree above this city's Ocean Drive, a group of about a dozen of the soggy green parrots perched, squawking among themselves.

Below, one of the newly designed nests was in place in front of the 451 Ocean Drive home of Julie Cook, a nursing student who was arrested on breach of peace charges during an angry protest with UI and USDA crews. The charges were later thrown out of court.

A few doors to the west, a group of bird lovers worked to erect another platform they hope the birds will be more attractive than the poles.

Down a narrow walk-in easement onto their tiny, Sound-front property at 489 Ocean Drive, Peter Katz and his wife, Storm Somers Katz, were supervising the construction of a platform.

“The parrots are one of the things that charmed us when we moved here,'' Peter Katz said, while a crew headed by Marc Johnson of Rockland, Mass., worked on digging a hole to sink a tall PVC pole topped by a new, empty nest suitable for parrot families.

Sixty feet away, the high tide was pounding away on their rock breakwater, while dozens of other avian visitors, including mocking birds, sparrows and cardinals landed on the various birdfeeders scat-tered about the Katz's quirky, 50-by-70-foot yard.

Later in the afternoon in Fairfield, Johnson led a workshop sponsored by the Friends of Animals, building more parrot nests, which look like a little beach bungalows for the birds.

Johnson admitted the new nests are a hit-or-miss proposition, since no one knows whether the monk parakeets, actually parrots, which are also called Quaker parakeets, can be distracted from a relentless habit of rebuilding in the same poles where UI tears down the nests.

Four southwestern Connecticut homeowners have put up new, alternative nests.

“If we can get people to build their own nests, with their own ideas, the more different presentations we make to them, the better the chance we'll be able to find out what works,'' Johnson said.

Part of the utility's rationale for capturing the birds and turning them over to USDA crews from kill-ing in carbon dioxide gas chambers, is their tenacity.

Albert Carbone, UI's spokesman, said Friday the company won't comment on the latest lawsuit, but restated a corporate willingness to work toward a method to keep the poles clear of bird nests without killing them.

Part of the Friends of Animals suit alleges that UI was negligent in maintaining its poles on a regular basis. The lawsuit charges that UI let the stick nests grow to huge proportions over many years, housing as many as 40 birds each before the eradication program, first reported in the Connecticut Post, began in mid-November.

“Hopefully, at the very least, this killing won't happen again,'' said Derek V. Oatis, the Manchester lawyer representing the Friends of Animals. “If UI can show us their making a good-faith effort, we won't pursue them.''

“We have to get UI to do a really aggressive maintenance program throughout the spring and into the summer, particularly during the breeding season, so the birds aren't allowed to build even a small nest,'' Johnson said. The next thing

Johnson things that UI crews could rig up powerful leaf blowers, hoisted aloft in cherry pickers, to regularity visit the nests twice a week or more.

Sooner or later, he said, the birds should get the message. If not this generation of adult birds, then maybe the next will learn that the path of least resistance is in the trees or manmade platforms, not UI's power poles.

Priscilla Feral, president of the FOA, said last week that early anecdotal evidence is at least slightly encouraging.

“What I'm hearing is some parakeets are showing up at platforms,'' Feral said. “They're congregating and eating, but the question is whether they'll stay. If the new perches are literally across the street from UI's tear downs, we're anticipating the survivors, the escapees, to maybe relocate there.''

Dr. Dwight G. Smith, a monk parakeet expert who is chairman of the Biology Department at Southern Connecticut State University, said last week it may be too early to tell whether the birds can be enticed to new quarters.

He has heard evidence that the surviving birds may be disoriented by the removal of their nests.

“I'm investigating a couple of things that may become clearer next week,'' said Smith, who plans to submit some of his fieldwork for the FOA lawsuit against United Illuminating.

“I know that the day after members of their colonies were captured and killed, members of four or five nests were back, sitting there,'' Smith said. “So UI's terror tactics - even their dreaded method - didn't work.''

State Rep. Richard Roy, D-Milford, co-chairman of the legislative Environment Committee, said last week that he will review a 2003 state law that lists monk parakeets among nuisance birds that can be eradicated.

Roy has also asked the state's congressional delegation to work toward taking the monk parakeets off invasive species lists.

“I think the Friends of Animals make some good points in that UI could and should do things differ-ently to protect the birds,'' Roy said. “We have suggested, and UI is studying, putting out more crews to observe the birds and if they see three sticks together, to knock them down.''

Then, the parrots may eventually learn to build their homes in trees or the new platforms.

Soft hearts ask help for tough little birds

Posted by todd on 3:15 PM | Comments (0)

Fri, 17 Mar 2006

By KEN DIXON
dixon.connpost@snet.com

HARTFORD - Animal rights activists today will ask lawmakers to take the monk parakeets of south-western Connecticut off a list of invasive species.

The activists hope to prevent The United Illuminating Co. from killing the birds.

After 35 years of tenacious survival, the large green birds, which live in huge communal nests made from twigs, have become an important part of the coastal ecology, parakeet proponents will claim at a public hearing before the General Assembly's Environment Committee.

Rep. Richard Roy, D-Milford, the co-chairman of the committee, whose district includes dozens of monk parakeet nests and possibly hundreds of bird lovers, said Thursday that he hopes to protect them from the type of eradication by UI that killed nearly 180 birds last year.

“It's all part of an invasive species bill,'' Roy said of the legislation, which must be approved by the committee's Monday afternoon deadline to survive. He said the new law must be written carefully if it is to protect the birds.

“What we're trying to do is take them off the invasive species list in a way that doesn't take all species off the list,'' Roy said. Roy said the bill is only aimed at keeping the parakeets from being annihilated.

In a related development, UI filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks a permanent injunction barring the utility, which received help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, from capturing and killing the birds.

Last year's program targeted more than 100 nests on UI utility poles in West Haven, Milford, Stratford and Bridgeport. Some of the nests had grown over a number of years to several hundred pounds housing several generations of birds.

Since the end of the eradication effort last December, the parrots not killed by the USDA have re-turned and begun reconstructing 15 to 20 of their nests, said Albert Carbone, UI's spokesman.

Roy said it's up to UI to tear down new nests as they develop, with the hope that the birds will eventu-ally nest somewhere else, possibly on alternative nesting platforms that are being erected in Fairfield and West Haven.

“If they take down the nests several times in a row, maybe the birds will move on and find something else,'' Roy said.

Although most of the birds - which are actually parrots, despite their name - build their nests in large trees, many birds found the utility poles to their liking.

Priscilla Feral, president of the Darien-based Friends of Animals Inc., which filed the suit against UI, said that changing the law is crucial to the bird's survival. She said they believe there is no federal law that classifies them as invasive.

“There is interest in the community to provide protections for them and to let the birds go about the business of living,'' Feral said. “We're also not aware of any evidence or proof they've caused fires or are a public safety hazard and they've never caused agricultural problems.''

FOA attorney Derek V. Otis of Manchester, in a phone interview, described UI's legal motions as avoiding the real questions.

“They said that one of the reasons to dismiss the case was that they're not killing the birds right now, which is clearly ridiculous,'' Otis said, stressing that without a court order they could resume the killing process at will.

“We have no plans to capture monk parakeets,'' Carbone said, adding that the issue isn't subject to litigation, because UI is no longer capturing birds.

Last year, FOA filed a similar suit, but UI suspended the program, in which UI crews captured birds at night and handed them to USDA crews, which placed them in carbon dioxide chambers as part of the utility's $125,000 eradication effort.

Monk parakeet bill approved by committee

Posted by todd on 3:14 PM | Comments (1)

Tue, 21 Mar 2006

Unanimous decision for parrot protection

By KEN DIXON
dixon.connpost@snet.net

HARTFORD - With nary a squawk, the Legislature's Environment Committee Monday unanimously approved a bill that would protect southwestern Connecticut's monk parakeet population from eradica-tion.

The legislation, approved with no debate, next moves to the House of Representatives, as the General Assembly progresses toward its May 3 adjournment date.

Priscilla Feral, the president of the Darien-based Friends of Animals Inc., was optimistic Monday, but cautioned that there is a lot of time left in the session and that the bill could still be jeopardized.

Rep. Richard Roy, D-Milford, co-chairman of the committee, said the legislation would protect the birds from the type of program used last fall by the United Illuminating Co. to kill 179 birds in 103 nests on utility poles in West Haven, Milford, Stratford and Bridgeport.

The measure is included in a larger bill that would prohibit municipalities from euthanizing dogs that had been involved in biting incidents until hearings are held.

In part, the legislation says “no person shall catch or kill or attempt to catch or kill a monk parakeet.''

“We're just saying `don't do it,' '' Roy said after the vote. “It's just something we have to do.''

Feral said that if the bill becomes law, it could result in the Friends of Animals withdrawing a pend-ing lawsuit against UI that was filed in an attempt to protect the birds, which have found the utility poles attractive to build their stick nests that house multiple generations of the feisty birds.

“We look forward to the Legislature doing the right thing,'' Feral said.

On the committee's deadline day to submit bills to the House and Senate, more than 30 pieces of legis-lation were approved, including measures to promote the purchase of cleaner-running cars and to force municipalities to pay for emission-reducing equipment on the statewide fleet of 7,000 school buses.

“We have some of the dirtiest air in the country in Bridgeport and New Haven,'' Sen. Bill Finch, D-Bridgeport and co-chairman of the committee, said after the vote. “We have a vulnerable population of school children being carted 'round in fume boxes called school buses,'' Finch said.

About 2,000 vehicles in the school-bus fleet are powered by gasoline or are already retrofitted with emissions controls, Finch said, adding that the easiest installation is a $600 crank-case filter.

Another bill would allow Sunday hunting with bows and arrows on selected private properties in Fairfield County, the Naugatuck River Valley and along the entire Connecticut coast, at the discretion of property owners and the state Department of Environmental Protection.

It would extend the hunting season by about 20 days a year. Supporters said it's a deer-management tool, while opponents warned it might be the first step toward a statewide Sunday-hunting rule.

“I think you can be very pro- gun control and very pro-hunting at the same time,'' Finch said. “The deer need to be brought under control. They're carrying Lyme disease, jumping into cars and they're out control.''

Dennis Schain, spokesman for the DEP, said the department understands the concerns some hikers, horseback riders and others may have for Sunday hunting.

“We do believe, however, that some form of Sunday hunting is necessary for game-management pur-poses, especially to control the size of deer herds in certain parts of the state,'' Schain said. “We also be-lieve Sunday hunting can be used to achieve this goal without creating a danger to public safety in the outdoors.''

In other action, the committee: * approved $5-a-month fines for dog owners who let their licenses lapse.

* approved legislation that would promote the recycling of electronic devices, except leased computers and vehicular GPS systems.

* protect land trusts from encroachment by neighbors. * protect rivers and streams from being di-verted by water companies.

* approved a bill that would phase out the use of the fire retardant called polybrominated diphenyl ethers - used in appliances, rugs and household textiles - by 2010.

Time running out on parrot bill

Posted by todd on 3:12 PM | Comments (1)

Fri, 28 Apr 2006

By KEN DIXON
dixon.connpost@snet.net

HARTFORD - With less than a week remaining in the legislative session, a bill that would spare southwestern Connecticut's monk parakeet population from capture and death is languishing in the General Assembly.

It has been ready for House action since April 18 but could get lost in the flurry of late-session wran-gling as the Legislature speeds toward its midnight adjournment next Wednesday.

At the start of the 12-week budget-adjustment session in February, the bill was a legislative priority of Rep. Richard Roy, D-Milford, co-chairman of the Environment Committee.

Roy was reacting to the local, state and regional uproar over The United Illuminating Co.'s surprise autumn monk parakeet eradication program, in which 179 birds were captured in 103 nests on utility poles in West Haven, Milford, Stratford and Bridgeport. They then were put to death by U.S. Department of Agriculture crews.

Roy said Thursday that he still wants the bill to succeed, but a proposed Republican amendment on Sunday hunting has been attached that could stir contentious debate.

“I'll have to speak with the speaker and the guys in screening and find out where we can go with it,'' Roy said of the majority leaders, who review pending bills and approve them for floor debate.

Roy said the General Assembly as a whole “has a lower priority on it than I do,'' so he has to promote it in the waning days.

“I think the Sunday-hunting issue will certainly slow down the bill,'' Roy said. “I don't know how much support or opposition there is to it. Certainly, there is a contingent here that would like it to pass.''

Last week, the Senate approved a bill that would allow Sunday bowhunting for deer on private prop-erty along the coast and throughout Fairfield County.

But Speaker of the House James A. Amann, D-Milford, said he doubted it would be debated in the House because of opposition in the 99-member majority.

The hunting amendment was put on several pieces of pending legislation in an attempt to keep the is-sue alive in the House, Rep. Kevin DelGobbo, R-Naugatuck, one of the sponsors, said Thursday.

It remains to be seen whether House majority leaders would rule that the Sunday hunting measure is closely related to the parrot bill, which is included in legislation dealing with euthanizing rogue dogs.

Amann said Thursday that he supports the parrot-protection bill, which would overturn 2003 legisla-tion that classified the gregarious, nest-building birds as invasive.

Amann said there's still time to approve the legislation and get it to the Senate.

Rep. Mary M. Mushinsky, D-Wallingford, co-chairwoman of the Environment Committee in 2003, said the state Department of Environmental Protection, which promoted the 2003 legislation, misrepresented its effects.

“They never said anything about exterminating the birds,'' Mushinsky recalled.

Mushinsky said she will join Roy in getting the bill to a floor vote.

Priscilla Feral, president of the Darien-based Friends of Animals Inc., which has a lawsuit pending against UI over the parrot issue, said she is discouraged and disgusted with the legislative process.

“It's an outrage that Sunday hunting is tacked on to a parrot bill,'' Feral said.

UI spokesman Albert Carbone said the utility opposes the bill because it doesn't allow “the flexibility'' if UI were to again to seek to dismantle the stick nests that some parrot colonies have built in utility poles.

Milan G. Bull, director of science and conservation for Connecticut Audubon Society, said the organi-zation does not have a position on the legislation.

“Could we do with fewer monk parakeets?'' Bull said. “Yes.''

UI taking down parakeet nests

Posted by todd on 3:10 PM | Comments (1)

Tue, 06 Jun 2006

Utility claims nonviolent program means suit should be dismissed

By KEN DIXON
dixon.connpost@snet.net

NEW HAVEN - The United Illuminating Co. is now tearing down monk parakeet nests without captur-ing or killing the birds, lawyers for the utility told a Superior Court judge on Monday.

But an animal rights group still intends to pursue its lawsuit to prevent the type of catch-and-slaughter program that destroyed 179 parrots in 103 nests last November and December.

Judge David Skolnick seemed skeptical of UI's position that because it is not eradicating bird colonies right now, a lawsuit filed by the Darien-based Friends of Animals Inc. should be dismissed.

“United Illuminating is not capturing or killing monk parakeets,'' said Jonathan Freiman, a Hartford attorney representing the utility, whose surprise program, with assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, stunned bird lovers in the state and across the nation last year.

“United Illuminating has no plans to capture or kill monk parakeets,'' Freiman said, adding that the utility took out newspaper advertisements to provide public notice last year in the weeks before the ex-termination program began in mid-November.

But Freiman, stressing that the case should be dismissed because it is not “ripe,'' admitted that snar-ing and killing the birds could resume someday.

“It is not a promise to never again capture or kill a monk parakeet,'' he said. “This is purely a hypo-thetical dispute on something that might happen in the future.''

“All this is saying is that at the moment, there are no plans to capture monk parakeets?'' Skolnick asked. “Right?''

Freiman said that UI has been looking at new methods to shoo the birds from utility poles, but can't guess whether a solution might be found over upcoming months or years.

UI says the parakeets' large stick nests built high on utility poles pose a hazard, and blames them for several fires in recent years.

“We're talking about birds that won't listen to UI or anybody else,'' said Derek V. Otis, attorney for the Friends of Animals.

“They reproduce, eat and nest. This is a controversy even if they're not killing now.''

Freiman announced that UI has sought nonviolent solutions to the nests and that the utility is moni-toring the rebuilding going on among surviving birds that imprinted the utility poles as their homes.

“Depending on the size, nests are currently being removed on an ongoing basis,'' Freiman said. “The company has every hope that routine maintenance will solve the problem.''

At the time of the $125,000 program's inception last fall, neighbors complained that UI had deferred maintenance on poles for eight years or more, letting the nests grow to immense proportions, sometimes covering electric transformers.

The utility suspended its program after the Friends of Animals filed a request for an injunction last year. After a Dec. 6 hearing, during which UI announced it would no longer capture birds, the FOA withdrew its initial lawsuit.

Reports of nests causing fires and power outages have varied. Earlier this year state lawmakers were told the birds had caused five or fewer fires, but dozens were detailed in the hundreds of pages of docu-ments UI filed in defending its case against the Friends of Animals.

William J. Cook, director of project management and design for UI, was prepared to testify Monday, but Otis claimed that there was little way to confirm the utility's records and that if the judge allows the case to proceed, he will depose UI witnesses and experts on the state's parrot population.

Priscilla Feral, president of the nonprofit Friends of Animals, said she's encouraged by the judge's in-terest.

“I feel like we've got a shot at this,'' Feral said outside the courtroom. “But it doesn't mean we shouldn't change the state statute to protect the parrots, because I'm worried they'll be back at it next fall.''

UI crews captured generations of the green parrots, which have lived in the region since the early 1970s, during night visits to nests in West Haven, Milford, Stratford and Bridgeport last fall.

Captured birds were turned over to U.S. Department of Agriculture personnel, which immediately as-phyxiated them in carbon-dioxide chambers and kept the carcasses for research.

Albert Carbone, spokesman for UI, said after the hearing that “a half dozen'' stick nests, reconstructed on southwestern Connecticut utility poles after last fall's eradication program, have recently been torn down without capturing or killing the tenacious birds.

In addition to the 103 nests targeted last fall, Carbone said UI took down another 16 nests at the re-quest of customers. Surviving birds have started rebuilding 39 nests in West Haven, Stratford and Bridgeport, but not Milford, Carbone said.

Otis, in an interview, said UI's nonviolent tactic to clear its poles from parrot nests “sort of admits our case.''

The judge did not set a date for a decision on UI's motion to dismiss the Friends of Animals' case.

Legislation aimed at protecting the birds was approved in major committees of the General Assembly this year, then died on the House calendar last month before a floor debate could be held on the issue.