ASSASSINATED?

Beloved NYC Owl Barry Murdered? Necropsy Shows Lethal Amount of Rat Poison

The level of rat poison in her system could have impaired her flying abilities before her fatal crash, a state necropsy said.

New information has come to light suggesting that Barry, a cherished feathered resident of New York City’s Central Park who died last month, had a potentially lethal level of rat poison in her system at the time of her death. That could have impaired the barred owl’s flying, causing her to crash and be struck by a park conservancy maintenance vehicle. The news was reported on Monday evening by The City, which obtained state necropsy records. Barry, who died from blunt-force trauma around 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 6, also had traces of a rat and fish scales inside her body.

The necropsy said Barry had been exposed to “bromadiolone,” a rat poison, as well as “multiple anticoagulant rodenticides, including brodifacoum, chlorophacinone, difethialone, diphacinone, and warfarin.” It is unclear where in the park—or outside the park—Barry ingested the poisons, but the Parks Department does not use certain more lethal chemicals that were found in Barry, though it does use bromadiolone. According to New York magazine, if it turns out that Barry was poisoned, she would not be the first murdered owl in Central Park.