den | (Reply)

From:

woodrunner.livejournal.com

There are a lot of "legal" spots that my dog consider fair game when they're not. My couch is one of them, but ONLY when I'm not home. When I'm home they stand there with their chin on the couch until I give in (or not) and tell them to jump up...

As for magpies... From what I remember from my medicinal chemistry course with a cool professor who tended to ramble on a variety of topics not related to human medicinal chemistry (and all of these off-topics were on the final exam, damn him), he made mention of pesticides killing small birds.

So I did a search online. The USGS web page has a list of quarterly medical data on wildlife (http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/pub_metadata/quarterly/2qt00tbl.html). I scrolled down and found a record for five American magpies that died; the official cause of death was toxicosis: diazinon.

I know from the name that it's a pesticide. This (http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/op/diazinon.htm) is from the EPA web page and gives a bit of information on the diazinon. Organophosphates can replace certain nutrients in the body, so it might cause paralysis. It's also very toxic (http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/op/diazinon/summary.htm) to birds.

Either way it's an idea of what might have caused a magpie's vomiting and subsequent paralysis...

However, if organophosphate insecticides aren't in use in Australia/New Zealand, then.. it shoots this theory in the foot.