Connecticut Parrots Face Tough Week Ahead

The wild parrot flocks living in Connecticut face a mass nest tear-down this week. According to an article in the New Haven Register, the United Illuminating Company will tear down 89 nests beginning this Tuesday.

Thanks to pressure from pro-parrot groups, United Illuminating will reportedly not harm the birds, but UI's actions must be monitored closely, because it has an extremely poor record when it comes to treating wild parrots humanely. In 2005, the company, in concert with the U.S.D.A. and several private Florida-based energy consultants, killed several hundred wild parrots in an action which its spokesman, Al Carbone, infamously characterized as a "final solution" to the wild parrot issue. Only after mass protests in Connecticut and a lawsuit from a local animal rights group were the so-called "Thanksgiving Killings" halted.

I am pleased that UI has apparently changed its stance from lethal to non-lethal wild parrot control methods. This is a step in the right direction. No one questions the need for utility companies to maintain their infrastructure: all that we ask is that UI employ the same best practices already employed by responsible utility companies such as Con Edison (in New York) and PSE&G (in New Jersey). These practices include timing nest removals for September (when the young have fledged) or March (between the onset of warm weather and parrot mating season). The fact that these removals are happening now, in late October, instead of September, suggests that UI still has some work to do before it is in compliance with these best practices. Fortunately, unusually warm weather patterns in the Northeast means that most of the evicted parrots will probably survive.

There is much more that can be done to accommodate the divergent needs of parrot and mankind. Extra insulation can be applied to electrical lines near poles in which the parrots nest. Orange reflective tags can be attached to deter the parrots from re-nesting in sensitive infrastructure (this approach has worked both in New York and New Jersey). Alternative nest platforms can be deployed to provide safe housing for the parrots: this approach has been successful in Connecticut and in Texas.

My hope is that UI will explore these methods, because they provide a win-win situation for its stakeholders and the wild animals which inhabit its operating areas. Let's hope that its change of stance in this teardown is a sign that UI is taking all of these concerns more seriously than it has in the past.