IN OHIO: Harlan Campbel, 68, of Jackson OH admitted that he and a friend, Paul Riegel spread poisoned cracked corn on a wheat field northwest of Jackson on Nov 15, 1999, killing 442 birds including mourning doves, Canada geese, meadowlarks, horned larks, crows, killdeer, and red-winged blackbirds. Both men had been charged and Riegel farmed the land where the poison was spread, but Riegel died last year. Campbell was fined $11,912, told to perform 100 hours of community service, and placed on probation for 5 years.

IN ILLINOIS: Strangely enough, the Defiance Crescent-News also had a report from Breese IL "It was like a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock movie: hundreds of dead birds sprawled across JoAnn Thole's lawn. 'I've got 117 pounds of dead birds-- I weighed them, ' Thole said as she opened her garage, which she had made into a makeshift bird morgue. The European starlings hadn't died of some mysterious disease. They were killed by poison distributed by Agriculture Dept at the request of local farmers, who said the birds had been eating cattle feed and causing other problems. Kirk Gustad, director of the Agriculture Dept's Wildlife Services unit in Springfield, said the agency received about 2 dozen requests from IL farmers to kill off the starlings. This week, thousands of dead birds dotted the streets of Breese, a SW IL town of 4,000. The birds have been seeking out trees to sleep in after spending their days eating feed-- and the poisoned pellets-- at nearby farms. There were so many dead birds last weekend that police Chif Jim Hummert told residents to put the carcasses in containers at the curb with their garbage. There are some subdivisions with so many dead birds, and so much bird droppings that kids can't go out and play, Hammel said.