Cleaning Animals Largely Futile, Scientist Says

AP | JOHN FLESHER and NOAKI SCHWARTZ | June 10, 2010 at 05:02 PM

FORT JACKSON, La. — Rescuers gently washing the goo from pelicans make for some of the few hopeful images from the disaster on the Gulf of Mexico, yet some scientists contend those efforts are good for little more than warming hearts.

Critics call bird-washing a wasteful exercise in feel-good futility that simply buys doomed creatures a bit more time. They say the money and man-hours would be better spent restoring wildlife habitat or saving endangered species.