Court ruling strikes down birds

All birds, including the endangered snowy owl, may be killed when they pose a threat to aircraft, according to a Second District Federal Court of Appeals ruling made in Manhattan on Jan. 26.

The Manhattan-based group Friends of Animals, a non-profit, international animal advocacy organization, sued the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Friends of Animals claimed that the agencies killed the birds because they were a threat to planes landing and taking off at John F. Kennedy International Airport under the Gull Hazard and Bird Hazard Reduction Program.

Friends of Animals said the program has killed tens of thousands of birds since 1994. U.S. District Judge John Gleeson dismissed the case in 2014. At that time, Gleeson ruled that the defendants had considered a “range of reasonable alternatives.” Their appeal was denied on Jan. 26.

The Port Authority declined comment at press time.

U.S. Circuit Judge José Cabranes, explained the decision made by the three-judge panel: “We conclude that [Migratory Bird Treaty Act section code] 21.41 does not place Port Authority officials in the untenable position of having to choose between violating federal law and deliberately ignoring serious threats to human safety,” he said. “Rather, the regulation plainly authorizes the Fish and Wildlife Service to issue depredation permits that contain non-species-specific emergency-take provisions.”

Michael Harris, director of Friends of Animals’ Wildlife Law Program, said that Friends of Animals is disappointed that the Court of Appeals chose to uphold the district court’s decision in favor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“What the Court of Appeals has actually affirmed is that our nation’s laws, as currently constituted, legitimizes the indiscriminate, unnecessary killing of animals,” he said. “When birds that pose little to no risk to air safety can be lawfully murdered, like those three snowy owls killed in December 2013, it speaks loudly to the nature of a nation’s moral character. Still, I firmly believe that future generations of Americans will change this and establish new laws and rights to prevent these types of injustices perpetrated on animals.”

The Town of Hempstead’s Town and Village Aircraft Safety and Noise Abatement Committee (TVASNAC) representative Myrna Zisman, of Cedarhurst, and a village trustee, doesn’t see another plausible way to keep bird strikes low. “When bird strikes occur, they’re very dangerous,” she said. “They hit the planes and can cause serious consequences. Thank God it hasn’t been worse.”

TVASNAC is a group that includes representatives of a dozen Nassau County villages that works to require the Port Authority and the Federal Aviation Agency to implement procedures that reduce aircraft noise during takeoffs and landing of planes at JFK and LaGuardia airports.

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