Cape Cod Wildlife Refuge Plans To Poison Thousands Of Gulls

Managers of a Cape Cod wildlife refuge are planning to kill off thousands of their visitors with a handout of poisoned bread.

The targets of the campaign - herring gulls and great black-backed gulls - have overrun the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge, driving away and even eating endangered shore birds.

Despite 17 years of efforts to thin their population with harassment measures, the aggressive gulls now make up 95 percent of the island’s bird population.

“This is a difficult situation,” said Diana Weaver, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge. “Certainly it has caused concern among our folks. We want to do the right thing.”

The population-control effort is drawing protests from animal-rights activists.

The refuge will close about 350 acres on South Monomoy Island, off the south shore of Cape Cod, from May 11 to June 2.

Weaver said bread laced with a poison that causes kidney failure will be scattered in the gulls’ nesting areas. A day or two later, the carcasses will be collected for burial.

“This is a calm death,” Weaver said. “The gulls pretty much fold up their wings and go into a coma.”

The poison, DRC 1339, takes 24 to 48 hours to act. The wildlife service and the National Audubon Society have successfully used DRC 1339 on the Maine coast to make way for the restoration of colonies of terns and puffins.