Report Finds Lack of Oversight and Supervision by National Park Service in Biologists Death
November 21, 2008
Last year Eric York a biologist for the National Park Service died from the plague after doing a necropsy on a mountain lion that died from the same disease inside of Grand Canyon National Park. A year latter a report has been completed on his death;
National Park Service investigators found unsafe work practices, violations of federal labor regulations and park policy failure in the death of wildlife biologist Eric York, 37, who was found dead Nov. 2, 2007.
Their report recommended additional supervisor oversight and further safety requirements for handling dead animals.
York — who was not wearing gloves when he conducted a post-mortem examination of the cougar — died alone on a couch in his house on the canyon’s South Rim sometime between Oct. 31 and Nov. 2 from an advanced stage of pneumonic plague, The (Flagstaff) Arizona Daily Sun reported.
UPI
The National Park Service over the past few years has really been stretched and one has to wonder if the strains on the system has put workers at risk. A very tragic situation and even harder to think that this may have been prevented had the NPS management been giving employee’s appropriate supervision.
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I find it hard to believe that this individual did not know the risks of performing a necropsy on a dead animal, any dead animal without the common practices of a face mask, latex gloves and the appropriate precautions. These are drilled into wildlife biologists heads in school and anyone studying biology or medicine in college which I am assuming this individual attended.
It is still a sad case.
I agree with you 100% that the Park Service has been stretched well past the breaking point and until we can gain some better plans on how best to run this agency, I think we are going to be seeing more and more internal issues in this agency. The same can be said for most of the agencies dealing with the outdoors in our great country.
I would agree with you Hunting Life but I think human nature being what it is people sometimes take short cuts. While we don’t know that for sure it seems his level of education would suggest he knew there was some safety precautions he should take. As a supervisor from time to time I find myself reminding those who work for me to follow company policies even though they know better. No matter whether he knew better or not it does not excuse the National Park Service from not properly supervising him and making sure policies and procedures were followed.
-Moose-