PITTSBURGH, Pa. — A Beaver County farmer and his employee were found guilty last month of unlawfully killing migratory birds.
Robert Yost, 52, of New Galilee, Pennsylvania, and his employee, Jake Reese, 27, of Enon Valley, Pennsylvania, were accused of using corn laced with a banned pesticide to kill geese and other birds on leased farmland.
U.S. District Judge W. Scott Hardy returned his verdict Jan. 24, finding Yost and Reese were responsible for killing 17 Canada geese, 10 red-winged blackbirds and one mallard duck.
The pair were also convicted of unlawful use of a registered use pesticide and conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States.
“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,” said U.S. Attorney Eric Olshan, in a statement.
The case. The case stems from an incident in June 2020 when dead birds were found in a soybean field leased by Yost, who operates Yost Farms. In addition to farming more than 1,200 acres of corn and soybeans, he leased the 8-10 acre field from a family in New Beaver Borough, in Lawrence County.
Federal prosecutors said the issues began earlier that month when the landowner reported one of Yost’s employees shot a gun toward the wetland abutting the field to scare the geese. Next, the landowner found foothold traps along the wetland area and reported it to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
The landowner testified that they were concerned about the gunshots and traps as they often walked on the farm property, as did a family member with Alzheimer’s disease.
A game warden who investigated the scene testified at trial that there was a 100-yard-long trail of corn with dead birds on or beside it. Testing from the state animal diagnostic laboratory showed the geese died of carbofuran toxicity. The corn also tested positive for carbofuran, a restricted-use pesticide declared unsafe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2009.
One of the landowners reported seeing Reese spreading something in the soybean field from the back of a UTV earlier that day. When questioned by the game warden, Yost and Reese denied using poisoned corn in the field but said they spread old seed corn for the birds to eat instead of their soybean crop.
The pair could face up to 13 months in prison and a fine of $31,000. Sentencing hearings are scheduled for May 29.
