Roadkill Posse

From the front page of today’s Los Angeles Times comes an unappetizing story about NASA’s roadkill posse, a group of pest control workers who patrol the roads of the Kennedy Space Center daily removing road-killed animals that would otherwise attract foraging vultures. A vulture collided with the external fuel tank of the space shuttle Discovery last year as it lifted off, and two other vultures were immolated during the launch. That event prompted NASA to implement a major bird-abatement program at the Center. Since then, members of the abatement team have, among other things, removed 3,071 pounds of dead animals from the Center’s road system, average 5-15 animals each night.