Eradication is only way to get rid of starlings

To the editor:

I read the Jan. 4 article about the animal-control officer in Cape Girardeau using a propane cannon to scare off birds and encouraging residents in the affected area to go outside a roosting time and make noise.

The only way to get rid of starlings is to eradicate them, as they did a few weeks ago at a local dairy farm. Scaring off the birds only causes them to roost somewhere else in the city or surrounding towns such as Jackson, Gordonville, Scott City or any other town or farm. It doesn't take an Einstein to figure out that just scaring these critters doesn't mean they will be gone forever.

Last year, an older farmer in Illinois poisoned these birds and had a heavy fine and the threat of being put in jail levied against him. This man, as well as the local dairy farmer, were just trying to protect their fields and animals from these nasty birds.

Aren't human life, farm animals and property worth more than these thousands of starlings?

JEROME SCHLITT

Oran, Mo.