The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is proposing to poison and kill 2 million blackbirds a year for three years starting Spring of 2002. This poisoning threatens to also kill a number of other birds, including grassland songbirds, whose populations are already in steep decline. The USDA is conducting the blackbird poisoning in an effort to reduce sunflower crop damage in the Northern Plains. 

There is no scientific evidence that the blackbird-poisoning program is effective; it is not even known if the blackbirds they are attempting to kill in the spring are the same blackbirds eating the sunflower seeds in the fall. Audubon opposes the blackbird-poisoning program because it cannot be justified on economic or scientific grounds.

Please contact Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman and urge her to end the poisoning of red-winged blackbirds in North and South Dakota! Click here http://www.capitolconnect.com/audubon/contact/
default.asp?subject=41 for more information on this issue, and send your fax or e-mail immediately today*. Only with your help can we hope to put a stop to this program!

To learn more about this subject, click here http://magazine.audubon.org/incite/incite0111.html to read the full article that appeared in our most recent issue of Audubon Magazine: 

*Please Note: If you haven’t used this free service before, you’ll need to fill out a brief registration form, which will ensure your letter to Secretary Veneman is copied to your two U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives. Your registration is for this system only and will not be used for any other purpose.