Death-Defying Rally

Let the coots live.

That’s what about 50 protesters were shouting Monday afternoon outside a lakeside community in Rancho Santa Margarita. About 200 of the birds are expected to be destroyed by week’s end, said officials with Merit Property Management, managers of the Sam Lark Housing Development.

“I think this decision to kill, kill, kill is overkill,” said resident Helen Howard. “It’s absurd. They can’t justify it.”

The protest was organized after negotiations between Orange County People for Animals, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Merit Property Management failed to find another way of removing the coots. The birds would have migrated back to Canada in about six weeks, PETA spokeswoman Jane Garrison said.

Garrison said she is objecting not only to killing the birds but also to the method. “They will be poisoned,” she said, waving to drivers who honked their car horns in response to her sign reading, “Leave the coots alone.” “If any survive the poison, their necks will be broken.”

Representatives at Animal Pest Management in Lake Forest, the firm hired to destroy the birds, confirmed that the birds would be destroyed with a toxic tranquilizer.

Merit says the birds are a nuisance because they pollute the water and destroy the grass. The board of the homeowners association said it will incorporate nonlethal methods to get rid of the birds next season, but it’s just too late for the birds now.

The protest over the coots was not one-sided, however.

On the other side of the street two men carried signs that read “Stop the filth: No coots” and “Control coots, save kids.”

“They’re the messiest birds,” said Dan Whitaker, 49, of Irvine, who thinks the birds should be killed in a humane way. “I’ve lived on a lake for 10 years, and these birds poop all over the place. The kids step in it, I step in it and they destroy all the grass.”

Ultimately, Garrison hopes that the protest will convince the homeowners association and the property managers to reconsider. She said more “extreme measures” might be taken by her organization if nothing changes.