German animal biologist Silvia Gaus has some tough advice for the people heroically trying to rescue and clean the pelicans and other birds tarred by the BP oil spill: "Kill, don't clean." As heartbreaking as it might be to euthanize them, Gaus argues, "serious studies" show that the medium-term survival of oil-soaked birds is about 1 percent — and the rest die a painful death. Is it really more humane to kill the birds than to try to rehabilitate them? (See footage of birds and fish covered in oil)
Many birds can still be rehabilitated: While experts at the World Wildlife Fund have agreed with Gaus in the case of heavily oiled birds, says Devorah Bennu in ScienceBlogs, many lightly oiled birds can be saved. And Gaus "conveniently ignores" data that shows much better survival rates — 50 to 80 percent — depending on the spill. "Certainly, it is in our best interests (and those of wildlife) to understand why there are such wildly variable survival rates before forcing a blanket policy of euthanasia."
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