This reminds me of the attempt to control sparrow populations during China's Great Leap Forward. Chinese scientists had determined that sparrows were eating too much of farmers crops and decided to launch a nation-wide campaign where everyone was encouraged to kill sparrows by any means necessary. Unlike this article however, the extermination of sparrows (and other birds) was incredibly effective. Unfortunately, this lead to the proliferation of insects such as locusts which ironically (and tragically) caused more damage to crops than sparrows ever could and contributed to a famine which killed millions
