COLERAIN TOWNSHIP, OH – Rumpke Waste & Recycling customers dispose of more than 2 tons of garbage every year at Ohio's largest landfill, located in this neighborhood north of Cincinnati.
At the same time, the family-owned waste company disposes of thousands of animals attracted to that garbage.
Under a little-known contract with the federal government, Rumpke has killed nearly 170,000 animals at the landfill since 2008, close to 24,000 of them with guns. It has also dispersed another 29 million animals with a range of "scare devices."
The top target by far: Starlings. But the list also included gulls, raccoons, and even cats.
"People were astounded at the large number of animals that were killed and scared away," said Tim Mara, a retired Cincinnati
attorney who obtained the data for Oxbow, a local conservation group.
Rumpke and its government contractor, a unit of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, confirmed the numbers.
The company said it aims to eliminate animals so they don't carry garbage (in full or in their feces) beyond the landfill's borders. Its contractor "focuses on the scavenger animals that can carry diseases off-site," spokesperson Molly Yeager told The Enquirer.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called on Rumpke to "choose compassion over cruelty and scrap lethal methods [of animal control] in favor of human deterrents."
Traps, snares, cages, nets used along with guns
Oxbow requested information about Rumpke's "cooperative service agreement" with USDA for an Earth Day event in April. The records didn't arrive until later but confirmed to the group that the Rumpke program it first learned about three years earlier was still in place.
The records, covering activity from Oct. 1, 2008, to March 2, 2026, revealed that the sole USDA wildlife technician assigned to Rumpke:
- Killed 169,714 animals, shooting 23,730 of them. He primarily used a 12-gauge shotgun for the firearms deaths, according to a 2009 USDA report about its work for Rumpke.
- Used traps, snares, cages, nets and other methods to catch and euthanize the other 145,984.
- Killed mostly European starlings, an invasive bird species that travels in large groups. They accounted for 78% of the animals that were shot and 99% of those killed with different methods.
- Dispersed 29.5 million other animals with devices that emit noise or light, with some described as bombs, whistlers and screamers.
- Collected his salary from USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service/Wildlife Services. Rumpke currently pays that entity close to $171,000 a year for the work.
In addition to confirming the accuracy of the data to The Enquirer, the USDA provided 16 photos taken in the landfill in response to a public records request. The photos were among 400 sent earlier to Oxbow.
Agreements address birds at airports, too
Since 2008, Rumpke's contractor has scared off – rather than killed – more than 99% of all animals it has encountered at the landfill, Yeager said via email.
State law mandates that the company manage wildlife and vectors at its landfills "to best protect human health," Yeager said. In reducing animals, the company's contractor also reduces the threat of harm to the landfill's air, land, water and infrastructure, she said.
The company began using USDA full-time in Colerain Township in 2008 and was using it part-time before that, Yeager said. It does not assign any of its own employees to handle animal control, she said.
Rumpke has similar agreements to control animals at its landfills in Ohio's Brown, Pike and Richland counties, and one in Henry County in Indiana, Yeager said.
Such USDA agreements are "common practice" at landfills, airports, military bases and other venues where animals can create safety or health risks, she said.
The USDA did not answer an Enquirer question about how many such agreements it has with other landfills. Neither did the National Waste & Recycling Association, which, like Rumpke, said such contracts protect public health.
Under a federal law that dates to 1931, the USDA has authority to control animals that cause disease or injure agriculture, wildlife and humans for public and private clients. The agency's website highlights its efforts to keep birds away from airports, with minor mention of its work with landfills.
Asked what Rumpke tells the public about the program, Yeager said "it hasn't been a topic of discussion or concern" but that the company does inform people who tour the landfill that "we work with the USDA for animal control measures."
Yeager said Rumpke also works to limit animal infiltration by:
- Reducing the size of the "open face" of the landfill – the part currently accepting new trash – by covering it with dirt. That's a disincentive to animals scavenging for food.
- Installing fencing to keep out animals that travel on the ground.
Animals killed on site are buried in the landfill.
'Too much reliance' on shooting, landfill expert says
Bob Gedert, a veteran of the waste industry, said Rumpke needs better preventative approaches. As a 24/7 operation, the company does not sufficiently close the Colerain Township landfill's working face each day, in Gedert's opinion. And given the number of animals killed each year, fencing is not adequate, he said.
"There's too much reliance on the firearm approach," the Cincinnati resident said. "I think prevention needs more attention."
Gedert, who held executive positions at landfills and recycling facilities in more than four states during his career, also disputed that animal control agreements are common. "Absolutely not," he said. "This is very, very unique."
PETA called on Rumpke to continue removing rather than killing animals. "If USDA records show that its contractors chased away animals 29 million times without killing them, that demonstrates just how extensively nonlethal methods can be used," Kristin Rickman, emergency response team director, said in via email.
Oxbow members are concerned Rumpke will bring its approach to controlling animals in Colerain Township to its Bond Road landfill near the Indiana border. Rumpke owns that facility but is not actively using it since a massive expansion at Colerain Township will keep that site in use for another 40 years.
No love for the starlings, some love for the cats
European starlings, meanwhile, seem to have few friends.
The birds arrived in Ohio via New York City's Central Park, according to some historical accounts. A wealthy socialite brought 100 of them to the park in 1890 as part of an effort to introduce every bird mentioned in a work of William Shakespeare to the United States, according to that lore.
Another account holds that the Acclimation Society of Cincinnati spent $9,000 to import about 4,000 European birds, including starlings, to Cincinnati in 1872-1874. The Cincinnati Society of Natural History did not approve, calling it "zoologically speaking ... an absolutely harmful" decision, according to a report in its 1881 journal.
Modern day Ohio wildlife experts align with the critics.
Starlings are "an invasive pest bird" that eat grain meant for farm animals, peck and slash fields of fruit and contaminate whatever they cross with droppings, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Under Ohio law, property owners and farmers can kill starlings or destroy their nests and eggs without a special permit, the department said.
Colerain Township residents Sandra Webb and Mike Hacker have seen the damage caused by starlings up close. The trees at their home, located less than 2 miles from the landfill, are often heavy with starlings, their cars and driveway covered with bird waste.
"We have an ample supply of Mike's Carwash coupons," said Hacker, who earlier told The Enquirer that Rumpke's expansion is harming the couple's home.
And while starlings are far and away the biggest animal problem at Rumpke – with gulls and pigeons at No. 2 and 3, with close to 1,900 and 1,300 shot to death from 2008 to 2026 – USDA's mammal targets get more sympathy.
Rumpke has killed raccoons, opossums, foxes and coyotes who visit the landfill, shooting some, catching and euthanizing others.
Oxbow members are most emotional about dead cats, listed as both feral and free-range in USDA data. Sixty-eight were shot to death, and six were killed by other means since 2008.
"That really got people upset," said Mara, the group's lawyer.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Rumpke killed 170K animals at the landfill since 2008, for your safety
