The Connecticut Post
KEN DIXON Staff writer
NEW HAVEN – A Superior Court judge on Wednesday reluctantly rejected an attempt to stop the United Illuminating Co. from capturing and killing monk parakeets that nest in utility poles near Long Island Sound.
The Darien-based Friends of Animals Inc. immediately said it would appeal the ruling, which was issued less than an hour into the third day of a civil trial before Judge Trial Referee Anthony V. DeMayo.
Shortly after FOA attorney Danielle B. Omasta rested her case against the utility, DeMayo accepted a motion for summary judgment from UI attorney Jonathan M. Freiman. Later in the day, Anita Steeves, a UI spokeswoman, said that the company had no immediate plans to resume the controversial capture program, but it expects a nest tear-down strategy in the fall and will monitor the rebuilding of parakeet colonies not scared away by the nest destruction.