On Sunday, the Gainesville Sun reported that documents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show a University of Florida research unit killed more than 150 birds in the past 10 years to protect plant science work.1 Of the animals killed, 47 were sandhill cranes and 105 were ring-billed gulls.
Although the gulls are not considered endangered or threatened, the sandhill is designated by the state as a threatened species. Folks, none of the plant science work they are doing is worth the killing of these birds; the Plant Science Research and Education Unit lets researchers study new crops and growing techniques.
(In case you aren’t familiar with Sandhill Cranes, check out the video below.)
See? (Trust me, as a plant-based eater I love citrus and watermelon- but this is unnecessary and should be considered criminal.)
After being called out by the paper, officials at the university now say they are “working on new non-lethal techniques to keep the birds away.”2 Why didn’t they do that, to begin with?
