Sharon Hill, Windsor Star

A federal judge in Toronto has put the brakes - temporarily - on a proposed cull of cormorants on Middle Island, prompting two animal protection groups opposing the cull to claim a minor victory.

The judge ruled that no cull can happen until a federal judge says so.

"Today's order is literally 'Do not touch those birds until a judge can review these matters,'" Zoocheck Canada's campaign director Julie Woodyer said Wednesday.

Zoocheck Canada Inc. and the Animal Alliance of Canada asked for an injunction last month to stop a possible cull of double-crested cormorants on Middle Island in Lake Erie. Woodyer said the groups, which are part of Cormorant Defenders International, feared the cull could have been announced and the birds shot while the legal issues were being considered.

Parks Canada is proposing annual April culls to cut the colony from 4,026 nests to between 438 and 876 nests by 2012. The agency is doing an environmental assessment and online documents say culls of nesting adult cormorants should start in early April.

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