Changes Made to Keep Electrified Prison Fences From Killing Birds

The electrified fences around 25 of California’s toughest prisons are doing what they were designed to do--keeping the cons inside. But there’s an unwanted side effect--they have killed more than 3,000 birds unfortunate enough to fly into the sizzling webs.

After lengthy negotiations, an end to the carnage is in sight--nets have been put up at 13 of the 25 prisons to keep the birds off the wires.

The birds are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, said U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service spokeswoman Sandra Cleva. Among the victims were 145 burrowing owls, 111 loggerhead shrikes and 10 red-tailed hawks--all on the service’s “sensitive” list because of declining populations.

Wildlife service Director Jamie Rappaport Clark said the agency had been working with prison officials for nearly five years on a solution.

They tried spikes to keep the birds off the fences. They tried cutting vegetation that could attract the birds. They made sure no food was left outside to draw the birds. Nothing worked.

“Many of our wildlife protection laws hold people, institutions and businesses responsible for the results of their acts, even when no harm is intended,” Clark said in a statement. “Cooperation is our preferred way to eliminate threats to wildlife that are the byproducts of human activity and technology.”

California Department of Corrections spokeswoman Christine May said the 4,000-volt, 650-milliampere fences--sufficient to kill people and birds--save the department $40 million annually in staff salaries. The netting cost about $3.4 million.

The nets slashed the number of dead birds by 90%, and no further netting is planned, she said.