Monticello Man Fined for Killing Migratory Birds

A Monticello, Mississippi man, James A. Selman was fined $5,000 last week for killing at least 171 migratory birds and other wildlife by poisoning them with corn laced with the liquid insecticide Carbofuran. On September 13, Selman pled guilty to a one-count violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in the federal court in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act prohibits the killing, capture, or harm of any migratory bird, except as allowed by federal regulations.

In March 2000, law enforcement agents with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and two state agencies, the (DEQ) , responded to complaints from several people who reported seeing dead and dying birds in two south Lawrence County cornfields. Special Agents and Conservation Officers investigated and found that the two cornfields were leased by Selman. The investigators found numerous doves, hawks, crows, warblers, and pipers laying dead on the fields.