CRUELTY TO BIRDS: Staten Island woman runs over neighbor’s hen and puts cigarette in the bird’s beak: cops

Michelle Conti, 32, told cops she drove the car toward a flock of birds belonging to her neighbors and then put the cigarette in the beak, according to a criminal complaint. "I was being a jerk. That’s not a crime,” she allegedly told cops.

BY THOMAS TRACY , DAREH GREGORIAN 

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS 

Published: Thursday, March 27, 2014, 1:39 PM

Updated: Sunday, March 30, 2014, 7:22 AM

Michelle Conti told cops she ran over one of her neighbors' hens and then put a cigarette in its beak, cops said.

It was murder most fowl.

A Staten Island woman intentionally ran over a neighbor’s hen and then stuck a cigarette in its beak, cops said Thursday.

Michelle Conti, 32, was charged with criminal mischief and torturing an animal for the bizarre Sunday incident — but allegedly told cops she didn’t think she’d broken any laws.

Conti said her elderly neighbors own more than 15 hens, and the birds are making her “crazy.”

“I drove the car toward the flock of birds hitting one of the birds,” she told cops, according to a criminal complaint.

“I later came back, kicked the bird and put a cigarette in its mouth. I was being a jerk. That’s not a crime,” she insisted.

Continued

Bird-friendly Farms Catching On in California

Migratory birds find refuge on farms as part of conservation plan.

Ker Than in Staten Island, California

for National Geographic News

Published February 20, 2013

On a recent bright afternoon in late January, scattered flocks of geese, sandhill cranes, and other birds foraged for food in cornfields on Staten Island (map) in California's Central Valley.

"Some farmers, if they had this concentration of geese, will put out the shotguns and use the sound to distract them," said Brent Tadman, who manages the 9,200-acre (3,700-hectare) Conservation Farms and Ranches on the island.

A pair of sandhill cranes forage on a farm in Staten Island, California.

Photograph courtesy Cynthia Tapley, The Nature Conservancy

But birds on Staten Island are allowed to forage in peace, because this is no ordinary farm. Located about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Staten Island was purchased by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in 2002 in order to create a place where agriculture and conservation can coexist. (Related: "'Walking Wetlands' Help Declining Birds, Boost Crops.")

TNC hopes bird-friendly practices developed and tested on Staten Island will set an example for other farmers for how they can keep their land productive and profitable—while creating habitat for birds traveling along the Pacific Flyway, one of four primary migratory routes in North America.

All About the Cranes

Staten Island is a major stopover and wintering ground for a broad suite of migratory bird species—including waterbirds such as ducks, snow geese, herons, and tundra swans—and shorebirds such as plovers and sandpipers. (See National Geographic's backyard bird identifier.)

It's also one of the most important sanctuaries in the state for sandhill cranes, one of the oldest species of living birds.

"There's a very similar species, if not the ancestral version, of these guys that was around in the dinosaur era," said TNC ecologist Greg Golet.

Continue reading:

Oil Spill Threatens Bird Sanctuary Off Staten Island

The Coast Guard responded to a discharge of fuel oil from a barge in Kill Van Kull at Mariners Harbor, Staten Island, on Saturday. The barge’s tank holds approximately 147,000 gallons of fuel oil.

Oil from a barge spilled into the waters off Staten Island, spreading to a bird sanctuary on an island in Newark Bay, the Coast Guard said on Saturday.

The spill was detected shortly after 11 p.m. Friday at May Ship Repair, said Petty Officer Erik Swanson, a Coast Guard spokesman. Petty Officer Swanson said that fuel oil was being transferred from a barge called Boston 30 to another barge, DBL 25, when workers noticed that it was also darkening the water between the vessels.

Workers placed a boom on the surface of the water to contain the oil, added absorbent materials and notified the authorities, Petty Officer Swanson said.

The oil was coming from one of the Boston 30’s tanks, which was carrying 112,000 gallons. The barge is owned by Boston Marine Transport of Massachusetts.

The Coast Guard has not yet determined how much oil had leaked from the tank or what caused the leak. Petty Officer Swanson added that Coast Guard helicopters surveyed the area and saw that an oily sheen had spread to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, about six miles to the east.

Petty Officer Swanson said that the oil had also reached the Shooters Island Bird Sanctuary and the Richmond Terrace wetlands, both of which are controlled by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and are within several hundred yards of where the leak took place.

Continued:  http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/oil-spill-threatens-bird-sanctuary-off-staten-island/