Carol Ricciuto used to be woken up by roosters crowing on the three-acre property she shares with her family.
Now, she said, the silence is “devastating.”
“We have chickens and ducks and have for 40 years. You go outside or open a window and there is nothing, there is no sound. There is no rooster, there are no ducks flapping their wings. There are no geese honking at everything and everyone. It’s empty,” she said. “It’s awful. It really is, and it’s devastating.”
Ricciuto, who ran the Open Sky Raptor Foundation in Grimsby for 27 years as a licensed wildlife carer, is confident she did the right thing when she contacted the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) over concerns some of her birds might die Have bird flu after finding several of them dead.
But it didn’t make the aftermath of that phone call any easier to bear.
Now Ricciuto is in tears and fears for the safety of several birds of prey, including bald eagles and hawks, which she keeps well away from the “hot zone” where the infected birds were kept.
After reporting her concerns on September 20, CFIA vets came later that day to swab the birds and test them for avian flu.
Two days later, a woman called to say, “I’m going to tell you how we’re going to euthanize the birds.” The call came before she even knew the test results.
On September 23, she said, a team in hazmat suits arrived at the property and began injecting the birds with a tranquilizer combined with Euthasol.
She watched in horror as the 60 birds she considered pets died.
Ricciuto shared the experience in a letter sent to local media, saying she “watched my birds being killed, some twisting in pain, the hens and roosters screaming, the geese screaming in fear.”
“The vet assured me that she was satisfied with this method and that it was very humane. Your definition of human and mine are very, very different,” she wrote.
Ricciuto, who is running for Grimsby’s Ward 2 in this month’s local elections, said her property would remain locked down for at least 120 days to clean up any viruses that lingered.
She was ordered to bring in an excavator to dig a large pit to bury the double-bagged carcasses of the euthanized birds, raking up all the feathers, feces and any debris left behind, cleaning and disinfecting everything, etc. Carry each time, if they or members of their home venture outside, double layers of personal protective equipment – including Tyvek coveralls, gloves, boot covers and masks.
dr Joanne Kearon, a resident doctor who works for the Niagara Region Public Health Service, said transmission of bird flu to humans is “possible but rare.”
“It typically occurs with prolonged, close contact with live or dead infected birds or their droppings,” she said.
“If avian influenza is found in birds, public health will contact anyone who may have had close contact with these birds to assess their risk and advise on next steps.”
Kearon said people who may have been in contact with infected birds are advised to monitor themselves for symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches or vomiting, and diarrhea.
If symptoms do appear, the health department advises people to see a doctor and get tested for bird flu at that time, she said.
“Of course we are working with partners from CFIA and OMAFRA (Ontario Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs) who are also contacting owners to advise on outbreak management for affected animals.”
With no one in her home showing symptoms of the virus, Ricciuto’s concern focuses on the 29 raptors housed in large enclosures to windward of the area where the infected birds were located.
She said the authorities involved plan to relocate the birds of prey off their property, including two bald eagles, four American kestrels, five turkey vultures, five Harris hawks, 11 red-tailed hawks, one chick buzzard and one great horned owl.
With the exception of the turkey vulture, they are classified as protected species and she fears they will all die if they are relocated.
“These are my falconry birds, some of which I have had for decades. I have a 36 year old Red Tailed Hawk. This falcon accompanied me from the beginning.
“They will take them to falconers and zoos,” Ricciuto said, voice broken with emotion.
Still, she wonders who would be willing to accept the birds from a property that has tested positive for avian flu.
Ricciuto said she made some compelling arguments to allow her raptors to remain on her property, but the authorities involved were told they were adamant they needed to be relocated.
Ricciuto said the emotional toll the ordeal has taken on her has not gone unnoticed.
She said public health officials who contacted her are more concerned about her mental well-being than the risk of avian flu infection.
“That’s a lot that I’ve been through and I honestly turned off,” she said.
Kearon said public health recognizes “the emotional and financial impact that infection with avian influenza in a flock can have on their owners or farmers.”
“We direct owners to mental health resources, including the Canadian Mental Health Association’s (CMHA) Farmer Wellness Initiative. Our nurses are in touch several times to answer questions and provide support,” Kearon said.
Although Kearon said owners of animals affected by bird flu may be eligible for compensation from the CFIA, Ricciuto worries the costs she incurred may not be eligible.
And if she doesn’t follow the orders she’s given, she faces a $50,000-$100,000 fine and possibly jail time.
Given what she’s been through, she worries that others might not be ready to do the right thing.
“The system needs to change,” Ricciuto said.
“They need to change it before other people are like, ‘OK, if they do that, I’m not going to report it,’ and it needs to be reported.”
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