Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Category: carbofuran | Date: Jul 04 2009 | By: Martin Odino

Informant reportings from colleagues visiting Ahero in the past have always been that doves are being killed using Furadan for human consumption. Well it looks these are just ‘hard times’ targets when vegetables are hard to come by to suppliment the staple starch meal which is ground corn cooked into a stodgy cake-like lump.

The sight of ducks in my guide book to the locals evokes memories of delicious meals graced by the wild birds-the tree ducks. The residents of Ahero are quick to point out that the birds are ‘fat and tasty’. One boy went on to described how just a fortnight ago he baited about 10 ducks and in 5 minutes he had meat to be shared by the entire extended family homestead. He soaked rice in Furadan solution and added mud in the mxture to make it look like left over rice from harvesting. Both species of Tree Ducks fell victims-White-faced Whistling Ducks and the Fulvous whistling Ducks. He then gave me directions to the site where he had poisoned the Ducks and true I found a number of their kind in the flooded rice plot.

Comparing Bunyala Rice Irrigation Scheme, Mwea Rice Irrigation Scheme and Ahero Rice Irrigation Scheme, I must say I have counted a modest number of Tree Ducks, otherwoise Whistling Ducks in Ahero; at one plot measuring about a quarter an acre, 29 strong of Fulvous whistling Ducks and 23 White-faced Whistling Ducks and these the people said were too few to poison bear in mind there are other tree ducks in other flooded plots.

White-faced Tree Ducks in the background, Fulvous Tree Ducks in the foreground

More Fulvous Tree Ducks

More White-faced Tree Ducks

Unlike in Bunyala where for months now the most I counted at a site which was about the only site, I only got half a dozen at the most. In Mwea, I only counted solitary individuals mostly averaging a bird a day. I can infer that Bunyala and Mwea have seen intense poisoning by Furadan compared to Ahero. In the former two sites, the ducks are poisoned to be sold to the available local market. In Ahero, poisoning corresponds with huge flocking by the bird and is virtually for domestic consumption rather than for sale. Everyone has an idea of how to poison using Furadan and sets out bait when the birds are in large numbers at planting. It is eating wild meat that is in season; it is only sad that the method used is not absolutely safe. Cases of accidental human poisoning from feeding on poison because one did not wash hands well after handling Furadan are known though isolated but known nonetheless.

Locals are well versed with other methods of killing wild birds pointing out one traditional method which employs a rod ending in encyclic hooks to maximize on the kill. A crude method but safer in the sense that the meat is not intoxicated and the birds killed are way fewer. But Furadan came in with rice planting and as a result a lazier way to kill the birds developed, more productive in bulk killing but involving handling of the poisoninus substance, Furadan.

Tags: Ahero Rice irrigation Scheme, Bunyala Rice Irrigation Scheme, furadan, Mwea Rice Irrigation Scheme, poisoning

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 20 2009 | By: Martin Odino

Dear readers, I am obligated to thank you all for your support hitherto. Thank you for visiting to read this blog and commenting and advising accordingly. I want to very specially also thank those of you who have donated towards this blog’s cause - to end wildlife poioning. In particular I want to recognize those donors whose email contacts I do not have and have therefore not been able to thank them personally. I am going to be using your donations for laboratory charges for testing of poisoned bird specimen brought back from the field during the April-May survey. I leave for the field this Friday 24/04/2009,and will update you on the latest from Bunyala as well as notify you on the lab testing proceedings.

A lot remains undone, especially with the campaign entering the MONITORING FOR FURADAN phase. We still need to sample agrovet stores for availability of the withdrawn pesticide by FMC. Further, not all sites, for instance are being monitored, but through your continued support I, with Wildlife Direct’s patron support, can put in place a more thorough monitoring system through supportive manpower. Mwea Irrigation Rice Scheme, a long-time bird poisoning site remains not consistently monitored. Yet there the poisoning of birds is even more secretive than Bunyala with the poisoned birds being sold to nearby low cost cafes. It is alleged that wild ducks are collected in sacks to be distributed to these eating spots.

Following our meeting with FMC last week where various concerned ecologists gathered at Wildlife Direct’s board room to meet the FMC’s representatives, it turned out that we need to have more and more of our samples tested to satisfy our local pesticide regulation bodies-Pest Control, Products Board (PCPB)and Agrochemical Association of Kenya (AAK) or Crop Life, Kenya. FMC blatantly claimed that we must make our observations scientific. In essence, they were saying that they need hard evidence of tested samples, not appreciating the fact that the costs of testing these samples are very high. Please read more about the meeting with FMC on the post Our meeting with fmc Baraza Blog.

From the meeting again, it became apparent that testing the samples at the Government Chemist Laboratory I mentioned in the post, Striving for better post-furadan poisoning days-Part 2, would possibly result in the laboratory findings not being accepted, at least by the standards of FMC, PCPB and AAK. This means we have to do our sample analysis at a different lab. The lab of choice is the KEPHIS lab-Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services. But the costs are way higher here, though the methodology and standards of the laboratory are of world class level. Each sample will cost about USD100. So, I am even still short of finances if I must get all my 10 samples from Bunyala tested. So this is the situation.

Please keep supporting me through reading, commenting and donating and…

end this barbaric poisoning frenzy and…

brighten the lives of the birds; both big and Small!

Tags: AAK, Bunyala, FMC, furadan, Government Chemist, KEPHIS, Mwea Rice Irrigation Scheme, PCPB, poisoning, Wildlife Direct

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