Re: Black vultures are eating cows alive. Now some farmers can legally shoot the protected birds.

On Sat, 1 Jan 2022 13:23:50 -0500, Susan Cohen <[email protected]>
wrote:

>On 8/18/2021 3:21 PM, Leroy N. Soetoro wrote:
>> https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/08/17/cows-black-vultures-
>> killing-cows-farmers-indiana-farm-
>> bureau/8162357002/?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=exchange&utm_content=news
>> 
>> SCOTTSBURG, Ind. — Sometimes as many as a dozen black vultures circle
>> above John Hardin's fields in southern Indiana’s Scott County, poised for
>> when they spot a cold, weak or vulnerable cow. Unlike their turkey vulture
>> cousins, which are easy to spot with their red heads, black vultures don’t
>> always wait for their meals to be dead.
>> 
>> “The black vultures, now that's a very, very aggressive bird,” Hardin
>> said. “They’re basically waiting for the cows and calves to die or trying
>> to kill them.”
>> 
>> Black vultures survive, like most vultures, by eating carrion, or the
>> remains of dead animals. That can serve as an integral part of the
>> ecosystem: eating diseased remains that could carry sickness and spread to
>> other animals. But unlike Indiana’s turkey vultures, black vultures also
>> go for living animals: calves, piglets, lambs and other small livestock
>> are their preferred targets.
>> 
>> Seemingly every day when Hardin walks out his door, he sees them. They
>> often are perched on the roof ridge of his neighbor’s barn or settled on a
>> nearby fence post — watching, waiting.
>> 
>> It may sound ominous, Hardin said, and in a way, it is.
>> 
>> The livestock farmer said he’s lost at least two but possibly up to four
>> animals in the last few years because of black vultures.
>> 
>> “When you’re in the animal husbandry business, one of the worst things you
>> want is for an animal to die, especially the way vultures do it,” Hardin
>> said. “Once they get a hold of them, they pick the calf’s nose off, pick
>> around his mouth, face and navel. So then the calf can’t make it very long
>> after that.”
>> 
>> Hardin is among a growing list of farmers who are dealing with what many
>> describe as a reign of terror brought on by black vultures. These birds,
>> however, are protected under an international law that regulates the
>> hunting of migratory birds. That fact has left livestock producers across
>> the state with a limited set of tools for how to address these birds, and
>> with varying levels of success.
>> 
>> But the Indiana Farm Bureau is trying to give them another option. In
>> early August, the insurance organization launched a new program in which
>> livestock producers can apply for a permit to legally kill and remove a
>> set number of black vultures from their property.
>> 
>> This initiative is several years in the making, but the farm bureau hopes
>> it will have a swift impact.
>> 
>> “When the initial volley of calls came in from those producers, we tried
>> to figure out how we could help them,” said Greg Slipher, Indiana Farm
>> Bureau’s livestock specialist. “This gives them more control of what’s
>> happening on their farm.”
>> 
>> Vultures kill dozens of animals
>> Slipher first heard of black vultures about five years ago when he got a
>> call from his colleagues in Kentucky warning him: They’re coming.
>> Seemingly overnight, black vultures started popping up everywhere on
>> southern Indiana’s landscape, he said.
>> 
>> “I got a heads up that these birds were coming my way,” he said, “and by
>> golly they were right.”
>> 
>> Black vultures have continued to expand north in recent decades across the
>> Ohio River from their original territory in southern states. In the 1990s,
>> there were so few black vultures in Indiana that groups dedicated to
>> protecting migratory birds didn’t even have a clear estimate. Now, a
>> recent study based on calculations from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
>> estimates upward of 17,000 black vultures in the state.
>> 
>> As their numbers have grown, so, too, has the damage the black-headed
>> birds have caused and the calls for assistance they’ve spurred. The Animal
>> and Plant Health Inspection Service with USDA has received an average of
>> 8,639 technical assistance calls from participants in 2020 nationwide.
>> 
>> That increase can mostly be attributed to producers who are looking for
>> help on how to manage the vultures, Humberg said.
>> 
>> Black vultures terrorize: Difficult to legally kill birds that are eating
>> livestock
>> 
>> Still, the damage black vultures have caused is a little less easy to nail
>> down — at least at the present. A multi-year study of black vultures being
>> led by Purdue University is currently underway. One of its goals is to
>> better understand how many farmers have been affected, how many animals
>> have been lost and the resulting financial costs.
>> 
>> A survey of only about 20 livestock producers found they lost 25 animals
>> to black vultures in the last three years, including both adult cows and
>> calves. A single cow can be worth more than $1,000, and for small
>> producers, the loss of just one cow can be a major disruption to their
>> operation.
>> 
>> Program to protect livestock from vultures
>> According to outdoorlife.com, the black vulture reduction pilot program
>> started in Kentucky and Tennessee, and includes Arkansas, Mississippi,
>> Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. The program allows farmers with vulture
>> problems to obtain a depredation permit.
>> 
>> The U.S. has migratory bird treaties with Canada and Mexico, as well as
>> Japan and Russia. These laws were put in place to protect migratory birds,
>> which often cross international borders, from over-hunting. Black vultures
>> are protected under one of these treaties: The 1918 Migratory Bird Act.
>> 
>> Under that law, it is illegal to maim or kill black vultures without a
>> permit, which costs $100 in Indiana. Farmers can apply for one of these
>> permits through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but they have found
>> the process onerous and the cost a deterrent.
>> 
>> “It becomes a convenience issue and a dollars issue,” Slipher said.
>> 
>> Indiana drew inspiration from Kentucky, which pioneered this program
>> several years ago. Since then, similar initiatives have popped up in
>> Tennessee, and most recently in Missouri — all of which have worked well
>> and had positive results, Slipher said. He hopes Indiana will see similar
>> success.
>> 
>> Indiana Farm Bureau is now taking on that part of the process for farmers.
>> The organization applied for a permit from FWS, which it received in June.
>> With that approval, the farm bureau is paying the permit cost and can
>> award sub-permits to its members, for free, to lethally remove black
>> vultures.
>> 
>> “That’s going to be to our advantage,” Slipher added. “We have that
>> relationship in place already and farmers will be more comfortable
>> reaching out to work with us on it.”
>> 
>> Their goal is to make things as straightforward as possible.
>> 
>> There is no limit on the number of permits the organization can give out,
>> but it is authorized to take only 500 vultures this year. Based on each
>> individual producer’s needs, the farm bureau will set the number of
>> vultures they can take, not to exceed five.
>> 
>> Producers are excited about the program. In the first week since it
>> launched, the farm bureau already received 24 applications, and Slipher
>> expects that number to grow as the fall calving season approaches. He
>> plans to issue the first permit this week.
>> 
>> Hardin is one of the farmers who applied.
>> 
>> “It’s going to be hard to eradicate them, but I hope it helps,” he said.
>> “Everybody I know is on board, and I think there is a sense of hope.”
>> 
>> After receiving a permit, producers must report the vultures that they
>> remove and also ensure that they dispose of them properly. That can
>> include burying the birds, but Slipher hopes farmers will do something
>> else. He is encouraging them to preserve at least one of the birds and
>> hang them on the property in effigy, which has been found to be an
>> effective method for warding off more vultures.
>> 
>> Humberg envisions this program becoming a mainstay, as long as it is
>> successful.
>> 
>> “The vultures are here to stay, and we are going to have to find ways that
>> we can all live together,” he said. “If that means some birds have to be
>> lethally removed, hopefully we’re minimizing the number of birds we have
>> to treat that way and the number of cattle lost.”
>> 
>> Contributing: Sudiksha Kochi, USA TODAY
>> 
>
>Those things are almost as bad as jews, who by their very nature are 
>just as predatory as vultures.

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