http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/777024--scarborough-highrise-a-death-trap-for-birds?bn=1
Scarborough highrise a death trap for birds
Hundreds of migrating birds have hit 17-storey mirrored office towers Published On Tue Mar 09 2010
Ecojustice lawyers have launched a private prosecution against the office buildings at 100-300 Consilium Place in Scarborough that are responsible for hundreds of bird deaths each year.
Ecojustice lawyers have launched a private prosecution against the office buildings at 100-300 Consilium Place in Scarborough that are responsible for hundreds of bird deaths each year.
Shanta Persaud was standing at the photocopier one morning when she saw a little bird fly directly into a large window on the ground floor of her Scarborough office building. The receptionist ran outside to find the dying bird on the ground.
It "just hit the glass and fell to the ground. It sounded like a pebble against the glass," she said. "It's so sad." And it wasn't the first time she'd seen this happen.
For birds migrating through Toronto each spring and fall, the three multi-storey office buildings at 100, 200 and 300 Consilium Place are a death trap. So much so that, last week, the environmental groups Ontario Nature and Ecojustice – formerly the Sierra Legal Defence Fund – initiated a private prosecution against the buildings' managers under the Environmental Protection Act and the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
The towers, near Highway 401 and McCowan Rd., are covered in mirrored glass and are as high as 17 storeys. They stand out in an area with few high-rises, making them more lethal than buildings downtown.
In 2008-2009, more than 800 birds were recovered from the lawns around the complex, ironic considering it was awarded a "Go Green certificate of achievement" for its environmental practices by the Building Owners and Managers Association of Toronto. Go Green certificates are most commonly awarded for energy efficiency.
Over the past decade, more than 7,000 birds of 82 species have met painful deaths after flying into what bird safety advocate Michael Mesure calls "the most reflective glass windows of any building in the city."
Among the birds most commonly injured or killed at the site between 2000 and 2006 were the White-throated Sparrow, the Golden-crowned Kinglet, Nashville Warbler, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and the Dark-eye Junco.
The action against management company Menkes alleges that the buildings' reflectivity has caused death and injury to birds, including species in decline, and, with respect to animal cruelty legislation, has put animals in distress.
"If you see these buildings, these are essentially mirrors," said Ecojustice lawyer Albert Koehl. "What the birds see is the sky and trees reflected in the windows, and they fly right into them."
Most daytime collisions actually happen between ground level and the fourth floor.
"Most of these birds die of traumatic injuries such as fractured skulls or broken backs," Koehl said. The broader issue, he adds, is the decline in migratory birds observed year after year.
The non-profit group Fatal Light Awareness Program has tracked bird deaths in Toronto for more than a decade and initiated campaigns such as Lights Out Toronto to encourage building managers to turn lights off at night, so as not to attract birds.
Caroline Schultz of Ontario Nature says most firms have refused to take real action."There has been nothing specific in terms of legal action to really force business owners to seriously review the options that are available to them to reduce the problem," said Schultz. "That's the reason for doing this private prosecution, because this is the worst building in Toronto in terms of bird deaths every year.
"Opportunities exist to do things to mitigate the problem, and what we really want to do is to set a precedent that business owners have a responsibility under the law to do this," she said. "It's not voluntary."Menkes is to appear in the Ontario Court of Justice on March 17.
The building owner didn't respond to numerous calls for comment on the charges.
Toronto is on the migratory path for millions of birds, said Mesure, FLAP's executive director. The spring migratory period begins next week and will go until early June. The fall migration runs from August to the end of October.
Mesure has worked on the issue for 20 years, but recalls two "days of hell" at the Consilium towers when it seemed to be "raining birds." On May 12, 2001, he said, FLAP volunteers recovered 500 injured or dead birds in six hours. On a Thanksgiving weekend in 2005, the group picked up 400 birds over two days.
In the past few years, the building managers have made attempts to address the problem. According to Persaud, employees have been told to report falling birds and to turn the lights off and put down blinds at night. They have also tried tactics to scare the birds away, such as hanging orange balls from surrounding trees, and placing silhouettes of hawks and owls in windows.
But Mesure says Menkes has been reluctant to do anything more because the only real solution involves changing the aesthetics of the building.
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