LCA and Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) teamed up to block the mass slaughter of cormorants by federal government agents on East Sand Island in northern Oregon.

On board the boat, The Bob & Nancy — provided by game show legend Bob Barker and named after him and fellow animal advocate Nancy Burnet — the animal advocacy groups followed USDA Wildlife Services as the agents attempted to shoot cormorants and destroy their nests. The groups came equipped with multiple cameras and a drone capable of capturing aerial video.

Wildlife Services agents tried to hide the slaughter from the public, so they would not kill the cormorants while LCA and SHARK were present, and used evasive tactics. 

LCA Founder and President Chris DeRose described one incident: “We gave high-speed chase to the agents right to the harbor. They were in clear violation of running with no lights and the wake rule in the harbor.”

Double-crested cormorant.	Wildlife Services boat running away from LCA & Shark.

The federal government planned to kill about 3,114 double-crested cormorants, 93 Brant’s cormorants, and 9 Pelagic cormorants and destroy 5,247 double-crested cormorant nests at East Sand Island in 2016.

The ill-conceived culling plan — headed by the US Army Corps of Engineers, US Fish and Wildlife Services, and USDA Wildlife Services — is supposed to protect the endangered salmon and steelhead, which the cormorants eat. 

But the truth is that the innocent birds are merely scapegoats being used to cover up the government’s own violation of the Endangered Species Act. The true threats to the fish are the hydroelectric dams created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers itself. 

Migrating salmon and steelhead swim through a series of eight dams and reservoirs along the lower Columbia and Snake Rivers – and only about half of the juvenile fish survive the trip.              

From the US Army Corps of Engineer’s own website: “The dams impede juvenile and adult migrations to and from the ocean by their physical presence and by creating reservoirs. The reservoirs behind the dams slow water velocities, alter river temperatures and increase predation potential. Reduced water velocity increases the time it takes juveniles to migrate downstream, higher water temperatures may have adverse effects on juvenile and adult behavior, and predators find prey more easily in slower­-moving water.”

Further proving the uselessness of the cormorant cull, biologists at the US Fish and Wildlife Services found that the salmon and steelheads not eaten by cormorants will just be eaten by other predators. Yet the federal government STILL insists on killing the cormorants instead of addressing the REAL problem!

LCA's petition to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers calling on them to stop the cormorant slaughter on Oregan's East Sand Island garnered over 11,000 signatures!

What You Can Do:

• Educate others about this issue and encourage them to take action!

Please do your part to help stop the senseless killing!