Pittsburgh-area farmer, employee found guilty of using pesticide-laced corn to kill protected birds
NEW GALILEE, Pa. (KDKA) -- A Beaver County farmer and his employee were found guilty of killing protected migratory birds with pesticide-laced corn kernels, prosecutors announced on Friday.
A federal judge found Yost Farms operator Robert Yost and his employee Jacob Reese guilty on three counts related to the unlawful killing of migratory birds, the western Pennsylvania U.S. attorney's office said.
Yost and Reese were tried before a judge in Pittsburgh in October of 2022. Prosecutors blame Yost and Reese for the deaths of about 17 Canada geese, 10 red-winged blackbirds and one mallard duck.
Prosecutors said the evidence presented at the trial showed that Yost and Reese conspired to kill migratory birds on the farmland using carbofuran, a registered restricted-use pesticide.
Officials said Yost told Reese to spread corn coated in carbofuran in and around a leased field used for soybeans. The corn attracted protected migratory birds, which were killed a short distance from where they ate the corn, prosecutors said.
The Environmental Protection Agency has decided that the risks of using carbofuran are unacceptable and that all products with the pesticide usually cause unreasonable adverse effects on humans and the environment.
"Robert Yost and Jacob Reese used corn laced with an extremely toxic, banned pesticide to poison over two dozen migratory birds," U.S. Attorney Eric Olshan said in a news release. "The defendants' indiscriminate criminal conduct also put the safety and health of the farm's neighbors—including small children and a man suffering from Alzheimer's disease—at risk. Protecting wildlife and the people who live in our communities from the illicit use of dangerous chemicals is, and will remain, a priority of this office and our dedicated partners in state and local law enforcement."
Sentencing hearings are scheduled for May 29. Yost and Reese face a total maximum prison sentence of 13 months and a total fine of $31,000.
