Thirteen bald eagles met a tragic end due to carbofuran, a deadly pesticide that can kill even with a single granule. This substance was banned by the EPA in 2009. Yet, Karyn Bischoff, a toxicologist at Cornell University, warns that people might still possess old containers of the pesticide.

In 2016, a man found four of these eagles in Maryland, leading to an investigation that revealed nine more dead eagles nearby. Despite six months of inquiry by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, no clear culprit emerged.

Carbofuran was once responsible for killing millions of birds each year and was banned in pellet form in the mid-1990s. However, it’s suspected that some farmers still use it to protect their crops and livestock. Animals exposed to carbofuran suffer a horrific death, with symptoms like muscle cramps, vomiting, labored breathing, and drowning in their own fluids.

Necropsies on six eagles and a raccoon found nearby confirmed carbofuran in their systems, raising the possibility that one eagle brought the contaminated prey to the group. The question of who poisoned these eagles remains unanswered.