Poisoners use pigeons as live bait to kill buzzards

BIRDWATCH Ireland has expressed horror after poisoners used three live pigeons tied to the ground to kill a pair of young buzzards.

The incident happened at Roscrea, close to the border of Offaly and Tipperary.

Those behind the attacks covered the pigeons in the chemical carbofuran.

A sparrow hawk was also poisoned after feeding on the baited pigeons.

John Lusby, raptor conservation officer with BirdWatch Ireland, said the poison used could have killed children if it had been picked up.

“This is incredibly frustrating and disheartening. We have witnessed many poisonings of birds of prey, but this incident is particularly gruesome and was obviously meticulously planned to do as much damage to the nesting buzzards as possible,” he said.

“Carbofuran is a lethal substance and in addition to the intended targets, the buzzards, it would have also killed anything else that came into contact with it, including pets and even children.”

Mr Lusby added that, ironically, buzzards mainly eat rabbits and rats, which help farmers control the numbers of these animals.

The farmer on whose land the birds were poisoned was equally enraged.

“I had absolutely no problem with these birds. They have been around for at least the last three years and have done nobody any harm, and they have not caused me or any of the other farmers in the area any problems whatsoever,” he said.

“I gave nobody permission to come on my land and lay down poison, and whoever did so was trespassing.”

Gardaí and the National Parks and Wildlife Service have been made aware of the poisonings and are carrying out their own investigations.

In recent years, poison baits have been responsible for the deaths of numerous buzzards, peregrines, red kite, golden and white- tailed eagles.

In October 2010, after much campaigning by BirdWatch Ireland and the Golden Eagle Trust, laws were introduced making it illegal to use any poison to kill birds or animals, with the exception of rats and mice.

More recently, a poisoning surveillance scheme was launched through the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to monitor the threat of poisons to birds of prey.