Chocolate Not for Birds: Livestock Owners Alert

A feed supplement used by dairy farmers can be deadly to wildlife, according to Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Healy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Northeast. The discovery was made when a concerned dairy farmer in Monkton alerted Vermont state game wardens to a sudden die-off of several ring-billed gulls at his farm. The cause was suspected to be the ingestion of chocolate, a supplement added to ground bread fed to dairy cows.

Carcasses and feed samples were sent to the Service