New Mystery As More Birds Drop Dead In US

[Magda Hassan]

200 starlings found dead but this time there's no mystery: U.S. government admits poisoning birds in South Dakota


By Gavin Allen
Last updated at 10:39 AM on 21st January 2011

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The bizarre trend of massed animal deaths around the world in January has been as baffling as it is disturbing.

It started on New Year's Eve as 4,000 birds crashed to earth over a one-mile area of Beebe, Arkansas, and was followed by tens of thousands of fish washing up on a river bank in nearby Ozark.
But rather than proving to be isolated incidents, they were the first in a long series of oddities that have seemingly defied explanation - or at least some of them have.




South Dakota: Dead birds litter the ground but the USDA has claimed responsibility for poisoning them


Shock: The USDA was surprised the poisoned birds managed to fly 10 miles

Plummet: The birds fell from the sky and plugged straight into the snowy ground


The latest occurrence saw around 200 starlings drop from the sky in Yankton, South Dakota but, with local authorities were baffled, the government stepped forward to claim responsibility.

It was initially believed that cold weather may have caused the deaths, but then Yankton police received a call from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), stating that its officials had poisoned the birds.

Some 5,000 of the birds had been terrorising a feedlot 10 miles away, defecating in the feed meal and posing a threat to the animals and farm workers.


Enlarge The location: Yankton, South Dakota

The USDA decided killing them would be the best action to take and laced bait with the poison DRC-1339.

Officials were surprised the birds made it so far before dying, but they have assured the townsfolk that the poisoned dead birds do not pose a risk to nearby animals or humans.
The Yankton mystery was solved quickly but many similar incidents remain unresolved.


Arkansas: Redwing blackbird fell from the sky in the town of Beebe


The plot thickens: Rescue chief Christer Olofsson holds a dead bird in Falkoping, Sweden, where dozens of jackdaws were found dead on the street


Mass bird deaths, ranging in numbers from dozens to thousands, were reported in Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, California, Italy and Sweden.



Mass fish death have been reported in Arkansas, Maryland, Chicago, New Zealand and Brazil.
The trend has also hit Britain with 40,000 devil crabs washing ashore along the Kent coast while hundreds of fish were found floating lifelessly in a Greater Manchester pond.
Both those British examples were attributed to extreme temperatures in a very cold winter, and some of the U.S. incidents have also been explained away.

The deaths of two hundred cows on a farm in Wisconsin has been attributed to pneumonia or a similar disease, while the deaths of thousands of turtle in the Italian town of Faenza was attributed to over-eating.


Enlarge Worldwide phenomenon: This map shows mass animal deaths across the globe

Other rational theories floated for the various incidents but much of it is guesswork and in any vacuum of facts conspiracy theorists are sure to tread.

On the website PrisonPlanet.com, run by American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, dug out evidence of bio terrorism.

Quoting a 1997 interview with former U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen, in which he stated: '[Terrorists] are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism, whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves.'
The truth is out there: But perhaps aliens are not really to blame

Members of internet forum Mayhem Makers brought aliens into the argument, with one poster called 'Devil Johnny', writing: 'I'm not saying the alien conspiracy is true, but I'm saying people need to start thinking on their own. You believe anything a man in a suit tells you.'
Even Mayhem Makers pessimists got in on the act when another poster, 'Woll Smoth', said: '2012 is coming earlier', referring to the ancient Mayan prophecy that the world will end on December 21, 2012.
But while it is easy to dismiss the conspiracy theorists, some are closer to the mark than others.

Alex Jones of PrisonPlanet.com posed the question 'could secret government testing be responsible for the carnage?'
He said: 'Electromagnetic scalar weapons that can artificially manipulate the environment could be responsible for the mass die offs. We know for a fact that over a decade ago the U.S.

'Military Industrial Complex was aware of and involved in the testing of such technology.

'The U.S. government has been repeatedly caught engaging in illegal bio-weapons tests over American skies that have maimed and killed not just animals, but humans.
'Given the history of governments across the world performing unwitting experiments on their populations, the number one suspect in such cases should always be government.'
As the conspiracy nuts would say, 'just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they aren't watching you'.

Jones may have got his workings out wrong in this instance, but he somehow stumbled on the right answer.