Pittsburgh Men Sentenced In Poisoning Slayings Of Duck, Geese, Birds

PITTSBURGH, PA — Two Western Pennsylvania men were sentenced Wednesday for using a toxic and banned pesticide to kill migratory birds, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Pittsburgh announced.

Robert Yost, 52, of New Galilee, Beaver County, and Jacob Reese, 27, of Enon Valley, Lawrence County were sentenced after being found guilty for killing approximately 17 Canada geese, 10 red-winged blackbirds and a mallard duck.

Yost operates Yost Farms in Beaver County. Reese was his employee when the killing occurred.

Yost was sentenced to a year of probation, a $21,000 fine and 100 hours of community service; Reese was sentenced to a year of probation, a $5,500 fine and 50 hours of community service.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the birds were killed on Yost-leased farmland by carbofuran, a registered restricted-use pesticide. The Environmental Protection Agency has deemed all uses of carbofuran are unacceptable because of their potential harm to humans and the environment.

Yost directed Reese to spread whole kernel corn coated in carbofuran in and around a leased field used for soybean cultivation where children were regularly present. The tainted corn attracted the birds, which died shortly after ingesting the corn.

Yost and Reese were each convicted of one count of conspiracy, one count of violating the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act for their use of carbofuran, and one count of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.