(Photo: Papa and Mama goose on the Boat Lake in Central Park. Thank God they are not in Lacey Township, New Jersey.)
Two new goose-related Facebook pages have sprung up over the past couple of days.
The first one, (54) Concerned Citizens Of Lacey For Humanity supports the geese of Lacey Township, NJ and promotes non-lethal ways to both, protect the birds and humanely manage their numbers. (The town recently signed a contract with USDA to round up and gas the Lacey geese for a cost of $6,000.)
The second page (apparently put up as some sort of spoof), mocks and derides the geese and issues invitations to goose advocates to "come adopt Lacey's geese!" (56) Lacey Canada Goose Adoption Agency
The "Adoption Agency" page went to some trouble to post photos of what looks like lots of geese someplace.
But, who knows when and where the photos were taken?
I could have, after all, taken photos of what would have appeared a very large number of migratory geese who wintered at Harlem Meer these past few months and then attempted to "sell" the case that Central Park has "too many geese." (Currently, there are between ten and twenty geese at Harlem Meer since the migratorys departed in recent weeks.)
But, for all the whining about geese and the "damage" they do at Lacey (and other areas), there is rarely any actual proof and documentation of the claims.
In fact, despite numerous newspaper articles and hundreds of comments regarding Lacey's "goose problem" one has yet to read an actual goose count number, size of the affected location or any variables within the stats. There are ironically, no statistics to either confirm or dispute anything.
Again, it appears to be just one more case of quite literally "Throwing (goose) poop at the wall to see what sticks."
I say that particularly in light of a video shot yesterday at Lacey's lake and posted on YouTube.
The video shows a man from a goose harassment company discussing with town leadership means of scaring off geese with a fake eagle and whistles.
But, the truly significant portion of this video is near its end. That is when the gentleman, in effort to demonstrate the effectiveness of the product, releases the fake eagle to scare off two geese from the lake.
Repeat: TWO geese off the entire lake!
Is this what Lacey Township deems an "overpopulation of geese?"
This would be hilarious, were it not so pathetic (truly worthy of a skit on Saturday Night Live).
The newspaper articles, the endless whining and complaints, the contract with the USDA, the meeting with a goose harassment person -- all to "get rid of" TWO geese on a lake?
OK. Not to assume everyone in Lacey is lying, wildly exaggerating and hallucinating (though they certainly are throwing crap at the wall) let's presume there really were "hundreds" of geese in the area a few weeks ago.
They were most likely migratory geese who have now, for the most part left to return to their northern breeding grounds -- just like most geese recently left Central Park and other local areas.
But, was Central Park in a frenzy over its couple of hundred migratory visitors over the winter? Did they get their panties in a wad? Did they call out "Goosebusters, the USDA and military drones?
NO. (Unlike Prospect Park in Brooklyn which crazily and cruelly harassed migratory geese in February.)
Harassment wasn't used on the migratory geese in Central Park this winter -- even though there were more geese this year than last due to the unusually warm winter. That is because Central Park was apparently aware that the geese would leave naturally even before spring actually set in.
All of this goes to knowledge about geese; their migratory, life and breeding patterns and knowing the difference between so-called, "resident" geese and migratory geese.
It does not appear that the leadership of Lacey knows any of these things.
If they did, then responsible and humane action would have been taken years ago to address the so-called "resident goose overpopulation problem" and it never would have come down to knee-jerk, mafia-style hit men contracts with the USDA and the laughable and yet, pathetic chasing of TWO geese peacefully swimming on a lake. -- PCA
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