Protesters Call for End to Shooting of Lake Birds : Environment: Lake Mission Viejo homeowners say hundreds of coots foul the water.

About 35 animal rights advocates carrying placards and banners gathered at Lake Mission Viejo Sunday to protest the shooting of coots, which lake officials contend is necessary because the birds foul the water and make it unsafe for recreational use.

“This is a terrible attack on the wildlife,” said Geeta Bahl, a 16-year-old Mission Viejo resident who organized the protest. “We want people to be aware of what they (the officials) are doing. . . . It’s inhumane.”

Officials of the Lake Mission Viejo Homeowners Assn. say that the “coot shoots” are necessary because hundreds of the migratory birds flock to the 125-acre man-made lake and cause hundreds of thousands of dollars damage each year.

The birds’ excrement, they say, contaminates the water, making it unsafe for swimmers, as well as making docks and pricey lakefront property unsightly. They also contend that the coots destroy the lake’s surrounding agriculture. “It’s a pest issue,” said Pat Dillon, a homeowners association board member.

But to animal rights advocates, the killing of coots is a moral issue. They urged officials to find alternative solutions to the problem.

“Killing these birds is wrong,” said Cherie Cody, 34, of Garden Grove.

Carrying a sign that read “If you support wildlife, boycott this lake,” Cody condemned the shooting of coots, also known as mud hens or marsh hens. “This is the birds’ lake as much as the people’s lake.”

Another protester, Rich McLellan, 47, of Silver Lake, said the community, in effect, invited the birds to the area by building the man-made lake.

“They created a natural setting with this lake, and when nature comes in, their solution is to blow her out of the water,” McLellan said.

Since 1978, federal wildlife authorities have given the association permission to shoot the birds as a way to “control” the population. Currently, lake officials say they have permission to kill 450 coots a year.

“This is not a massacre,” Dillon said.

The last coot shooting at the lake occurred Jan. 22, and the next one is tentatively scheduled for later this month. On Sunday, Martin R. Bender, president of the homeowners association, stood outside the main gate to the lake, where the demonstrators were protesting and told those assembled that the association is open to alternative solutions to the coot problem.

“But they don’t have any,” he said, noting that the association works closely with federal and state wildlife agencies.

Last month, officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said they were going to investigate animal rights advocates’ complaints and determine whether the association was abiding by its license. The wildlife officials could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Bender said trapping and relocating the coots, as suggested by some demonstrators, was not only impractical, but also less humane.

“A lot of birds get their feathers torn off and their wings broken when they’re trapped,” he said. As far as relocating the waterfowl, which migrate from Canada to Orange County each fall and leave each spring, he said: “Who wants them?”

Contrary to reports that the association hires hunters to eradicate the birds, Bender said trained lake employees go out four to six times a year before the park opens to shoot the birds to “control the population, not exterminate it.”

The association says about 2,000 coots migrate to the lake, but shooting opponents contend that the number is smaller and that officials are including other species of birds in the count.

“This lake was designed as a recreational lake, and we have a duty to make sure the water is clear enough for swimming, fishing and boating,” he said. The sheer number of coots, he said, threatens those uses.