25 years ago: Police investigating pigeon die-off in northeast Lawrence

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Mar. 11, 1986:

Lawrence police were investigating several reports of sick and dying pigeons in the city. The symptoms of staggering and vomiting were suggestive of poisoning. “We don’t know who’s doing it, but it looks like it’s somewhere in the northeast part of town,” Sgt. David Cobb said. “It appears to be poisoned grain.” Similar symptoms in 1981 had caused the city to stop using Avitrol to reduce pigeon populations at city hall, but the chemical was still being used at the Farmers Co-Op Assn. grain elevator at 325 Locust. The branch manager at the elevator said that the chemical did not kill, but caused the birds behave erratically, theoretically frightening other birds from the area. However, a manufacturer of Avitrol in 1981 had maintained that ingestion of more than one kernel would probably cause death in a bird.