Linkmeister

Dead bird in the middle of the yard

I noticed a dead bird in our yard today, so I thought I'd call the State Dep't. of Health to see what I should do about it. Ha. There are three pages of phone numbers. So I went to the 'Net instead. I found a site for dead bird collection, but guess what? DOH doesn't come get the bodies, you gotta take 'em to them. I checked the location page for the one nearest me, dutifully bagged up my bird and took it there.

It didn't inspire a lot of confidence. I walked in with this bag, and the kid behind the table took it, held it out at arm's length and walked away. Meanwhile somebody else got me a form to fill out (name, address, phone, dead or alive bird). But I didn't see how anyone was gonna connect that form to the bag with the bird. Maybe they only get one a day, so it isn't hard to put the two together, but what if they got hundreds?

When I called the collection site the guy at the end of the line said to put it in a ziploc bag. So I went out with a plastic supermarket shopping bag over one hand and an open ziploc bag in the other, picked it up with the shopping bag and placed it in the ziploc bag, sealed it, tossed it in the car and went off to deliver it. Using the shopping bag was the only precaution I took; I was wearing slippers.

I'm not too concerned about catching avian flu or West Nile from that brief and fairly well-covered encounter, but I do wonder what if anything those folks are gonna do with it. For all I know the kid took it out back and threw it in the dumpster.

I can hear it now: Somebody from DOH gets a report at the end of the month with my form attached as backup, and says, "Hey! You turned in a dead bird form, so where's the bird?"

Posted by Linkmeister at May 24, 2006 03:38 PM | TrackBack