US Fish and Wildlife Service Cancels the Gull Poisoning Program

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cancels gull poisoning campaign on Chatham's South Monomoy Island. This project began last May, (1996) and was to continue for a four-year period, to reduce the numbers of gulls from the Monomoy Refuge, to encourage the return of endangered species that cannot compete with the gulls, thereby restoring biological diversity to the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge off Cape Cod. Cape citizens witnessed dead and dying gulls as far away as Truro, a week after the poisoning stopped, and were greatly disturbed. In the effort to halt this project, many local, state and federal groups worked together - Cape Codders for Wildlife Protection, the Orenda Wildlife Trust in Barnstable, Wildcare in Brewster, International Wildlife Coalition in Falmouth, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the Humane Society of the United States.

The Regional Director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Ronald E. Lambertson, in a letter to US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, advised him that the Service decided to cancel the gull poisoning in 1997 as a result of the outcry of the people. Congressman Delahunt promised "as long as I am your Congressman and as long as Kerry and Kennedy are your Senators, there will be no further poisoning of gulls on Monomoy." Democracy works here on the Cape.

Despite the foregoing, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service will not abandon completely their campaign. They plan to use methods other than poisoning to achieve their goal to eradicate the great black-backed and herring gulls from this area, and hopefully encourage smaller, endangered and threatened species to nest at the Monomoy Natural Wildlife Refuge.

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