Nation IN BRIEF : MASSACHUSETTS : Wildlife Officials to Kill Off Gulls

Managers of a Cape Cod wildlife refuge are planning to kill off thousands of their visitors with a handout of poisoned bread. The targets of the campaign--herring gulls and great black-backed gulls--have overrun the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge, driving away and even eating endangered shore birds. Despite 17 years of efforts to thin their population with harassment measures, the aggressive gulls now make up 95% of Monomoy Island’s bird population. Bread laced with a poison that causes kidney failure will be scattered in the gulls’ nesting areas.