WALLA WALLA -- A Walla Walla official recently poisoned an estimated 3,000 starlings that had been calling a city landfill home. It was the second time the Sudbury Landfill has resorted to poisoning the birds.

Now landfill supervisor Dennis Rakestraw told the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin that he won't use the poison again "because of the people." The newspaper said the mass kill left a couple of the landfill neighbors' yards littered with dead birds.

In the future, Rakestraw said he will rely on noisemakers to scare the birds.

Rakestraw estimates as many as 5,000 unwanted starlings were living at the landfill. He cited disease, cleanup costs and equipment deterioration among the reasons he wanted to get rid of them.