OFFICIALS POISON GULLS TO SAVE RARE PLOVERS.

Byline: Michael Tighe Associated Press 

Federal officials Saturday began slipping poison into the nests of thousands of sea gulls threatening the homes of endangered bird species on an island off Cape Cod.

Poisonous margarine-on-white-bread sandwiches were planted in the nests of roughly 5,700 breeding great black backed and herring gulls on Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge, near Chatham.

Animal activists, who lost a court appeal of the poisonings Friday, delivered antidotes of tuna-and-charcoal filter sandwiches overnight to 2,400 of the birds nesting in pairs on the island.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the gulls are slowly destroying the endangered piping plover by pushing them out of their nesting areas and eating their chicks.

``What we're looking for here is a gull-free zone where the gulls will not nest and other birds will come here and nest,'' Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Diana Weaver said Saturday. ``We're targeting both individuals in the nest so we erase the memory that this is a wonderful place to nest.''

Only 14 nesting pairs of piping plovers were at the refuge last year, compared with more than 900 in 1966. No gulls existed on the island before 1961, and now they number in the tens of thousands, wildlife officials say.

The territorial gulls also prey on terns, laughing gulls and American black ducks.

The poisonings began Saturday morning after a federal appeals court rejected an appeal by animal activists. About 40 protesters and observers watched as agriculture workers spread the poisonous mixture onto 140 loaves of white bread and cut it into tiny cubes to feed to the birds.

The avian poison - also known as DRC 1339 - destroys internal organs and kills the birds within three days, officials said. The birds get thirsty and lethargic, and usually head to their nests to die.

``We find them on the nest with their wings folded and they appear to be asleep,'' Weaver said.

John Pulawski of North Truro would not identify the protesters who delivered the neutralizing tuna-and-charcoal sandwiches, saying many had received threatening phone calls.

Gaby Kleykamp was concerned that the poison eventually would get into the food chain.

``It's not just the sea gulls,'' said Kleykamp, of North Truro. ``We're going to get grossly sick, our children are going to get grossly sick. What about the unborn babies?''

Federal officials emphasized that their plan posed no health hazards to humans or other animals.

Eleven USDA workers mixed 12 ounces of poison with 60 pounds of margarine, before spreading it on the bread. Each sandwich was cut into nine cubes, with three cubes being placed in each of the 2,850 nests on the northern end of the spit of land.