Our New War on Canada -- Geese, that is. (Reply)

LA Mahoney writes: It's not just Prospect Park, but here in Westchester County, suddenly all the geese have disappeared in a mass slaughter. It's a horror and a disgrace. Officials now want to expand the massacre to 17 states. I am sickened by my barbaric species. It's so sad to drive along park areas (where people don't even go) and by a pond in an unused part of a Westchester cemetary and it's dead, not one goose or gosling left.

Reply: It is all over as you seemed to have tragically discovered.

These slaughters are complex as they involve many layers of bureaucracy and governmental agencies. USDA usally acts as the "hired guns" entering into paid contracts with various communities and park services to "remove" (in the sense of the Sopranos) Canada Geese.

But, Canada geese are also protected under federal law, specifically the "Migratory Bird Act Treaty."

The problem is there are all kinds of amendments and exceptions to the law.

These amenments can refer to airport safety (Geese can be "taken" at certain times of the year if residing within three miles of an airport.) They can refer to population control issues, "nuisance," health and other issues.

I am not a lawyer, but as I understand the basics of the laws that apply, when "taking out" geese for reasons other than airline safety, it is incumbant upon the planners and doers to show just cause why the geese have to be removed. Environmental Impact Statments also have to be done, as well as notice to the community. In addition, lethal removals are only supposed to occur when non-lethal alternatives have been utilized and proven to have failed.

To my knowledge, none of these things were done at Prospect Park.

The justification for the Prospect Park gassing of up to 400 Canada Geese was claimed to be "airline safety." But, Prospect Park is very far from the "three miles" specified in federal law and according to different accounts, outside the "7-mile" radios deemed by the city of New York to represent a "hazard" to airline safety. As matters appear now, we have been lied to with regard to exactly why the Prospect Park geese were rounded up and gassed.

I can't speak to the community you write of with regard to the justification for (as you claim) rounding up and killing all the geese. If you are not near a major airport, then the measures as cited above should have been implemnted BEFORE any "removals."

It sounds like you need to do some investigation or perhaps ask a local reporter to look into the story.

Because, if the residents of communities where these slaughters are occuring simply throw up their hands and accept the carnage without question, it is to guarantee there will be many more, not just where you live, but everywhere.

The residents near Prospect Park did not just throw up their hands and tacitly accept the massacre without question and protest.

Many have organized against it and have put up a Facebook page specifically to probe and address this issue. In less than a few weeks, it already has generated almost 500 new members.

I urge you to go to this site, sign up and read the many dozens of articles that have been posted to address this NATIONAL issue as well as other information.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=138907256129160&ref=mf

I hope that you don't object to me quoting your post on the FB page, though since I do not have your permission to do so, I will not use your name.

Thank you for bringing this to attention, but to be honest, you need to find out a great deal more information. The first place to start perhaps would be to call local officials with jurisdiction over the area to verify if in fact, a "removal" of the geese actually occurred. Some geese seek out special places while they are "molting," but then as soon as their new feathers grow in, they move somewhere else.

Roundups and gassings can only occur while the geese are molting and unable to fly (June through July). But, many geese are already flying now and can technically get away. The official time for roundups and gassings is thus over for this year.

Please share with us any information you are able to confirm and verify. Thanks, again. -- PCA

The Prospect Park Great Goose Massacre of 2010

(Picture Left: Canada Goose family. Papa goose [with head up], Mother goose, in rear and goslings at Central Park)

The Prospect Park great goose massacre of 2010 was unique.

For one matter, there was no notification to the people of the community. Even Martin Lowney of the state dept. of Fish and Wildlife admits, "There was a breakdown in communications."

That the clandestine raid on the highly social, resident geese at Prospect Park was conducted in the wee hours of the morning when the park was closed to the public insured that there were no media or lay persons around to shoot photos or video. No "Youtube" moments to document this operation for what it truly was: An exercise in barbarity, cruelty and probable law-breaking -- including, federal law.

One needs to truly imagine this scene:

Entire families of geese which include forever-mated parent geese and their goslings. Geese who are more than accustomed to walking up to humans, as they have learned to trust people over the course of many months or even years. Geese who, while they are molting, are unable to fly and escape.

According to new reports, the geese were corralled into a confined space and their feet were bound with plastic ties.

Knowing how parents geese will protect and defend their young, this had to be a scene right out of a Stephen King horror novel.

What kind of thugs did the city and USDA hire to grab and bound the struggling birds' feet with plastic ties?

Though large, adult Canada Geese weigh only around 8 lbs. They are mostly feathers. Since they don't have fangs to bite, their only possible weapon to defend themselves were their feet. How many men did it require to grab and bound the birds feet?

After the binding, the geese were stuffed two to three to crates.

And that's the point where even the news reports become "murky."

Although it is now almost two weeks after the slaughter, we still don't know whether the doomed geese were taken to some "building" and gassed or were gassed on site by being shoved into special trucks.

This is totally unacceptable.

There is NO EVIDENCE.....repeat, NO EVIDENCE to suggest that there was anything at all "humane" about this roundup, binding and gassing with CO2 of almost 300 defenseless Canada Geese.

That numerous bureaucrats and defenders of this carnage are able to get away using the term, "euthanasia" to describe this mass extermination without challenge is a disgrace to the entire humane movement as well as the city of New York and its leaders.

It totally debases and renders meaningless, the term, "euthanasia."

These geese were not sick nor were they killed painlessly or humanely.

Gassing by CO2 is a horrible way to die. Make no mistake about that. It takes the individual animal at least five minutes to die this way.

Moreover, very young animals like kittens, puppies and presumably, goslings can survive gas chambers.

Who was doing the checking to be sure the geese were actually dead before being stuffed into garbage bags and being disposed of at some "undisclosed" landfill?

And if all of this wasn't horrific enough, add to it, the fact that according to the NY Times, Prospect Park is more than 9 miles from either airport.

Presuming that is true, then Prospect Park was out of the "7 mile radios" deemed by the city to represent "hazard" from possible bird strikes to planes.

There was therefore, seemingly no legal justification for the vicious round-up and slaughter of these innocent, gentle and supposedly "protected" migratory species of bird.

This wee hours of the morning massacre seems to scream for Freedom of Information requests and possible lawsuits. -- PCA

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Lessons of the Geese -- must see video

(Part of a surviving family of Canada geese at Prospect Park. The older, (father?) goose of this group presumably sensed the danger and sucessfully led his family away from the carnage.)

I really love this and offer it to others as truly inspiring, as well as informative about a particular species of bird who instead of earning our awe and admiration has incurred our wrath and persecution.

http://vimeo.com/7488301

Please take the three minutes to view this video and share with your friends.

Also, please join this Facebook page if you too, care about the latest victims in our never-ending war on wildlife and want to do something about it:

Facebook For the love of the geese in Prospect Park

Thanks, so much. -- PCA

VILGIL TONIGHT TO MOURN THE CANADA GOOSE MASSACRE AT PROSPECT PARK

Please attend the vigil being held tonight to memorialize and honor the 400 beloved Canada Geese ruthlessly and brutally slain last week.

The birds (and their goslings) were mercilessly rounded-up, feet-bound, stuffed 2 to 3 into small crates, transported to some "undisclosed building location" and crammed into gas chambers where it took each struggling bird at least five minutes to die.

That was NOT, repeat, NOT "removal and euthanasia." It was a mass massacre and the lifeless bodies of 400 (formerly) beautiful geese were dumped in some unspecified landfill to further contaminate our environment.

(One is forced to wonder where the "building" is in Brooklyn that serves as a avian gas chamber?)

Date: Saturday, July 17 (TODAY!)

Time: 6:30 PM. (Please try to bring 8x10 photo or xerox of Canada Goose)

Place: The south side of Lake at Prospect Park (near playground and Gazebo)

Please know that these atrocities are not only occuring in New York City parks, but in fact, all over the country under the watch and permission of our local, state and federal elected officials.

Be sure to call the offices of ALL of your elected officicals (especially our Mayor at 311) to express your protest. You can easily obtain their names and numbers from the League of Women Voters (212) 725-3541.

Also, please go to and join the special Facebook page set up to address and hopefully prevent this kind of carnage in the future.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=138907256129160&ref=mf

We need to insure that this kind of affront and atrocity towards NYC wildlife never occurs again in our city parks and surrounding areas.

The animals in our parks belong to the people, not a bunch of bureaucrats in Washington DC, who for the most part, have probably never come closer to a Canada Goose then to blow them out of the sky. -- FOR SHAME! -- PCA

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Killing (and now Defending) Mother Goose

(Picture Left: "Mother Goose" and family at Turtle Pond.)

Please take time to read the Editorial from yesterday's New York Post, (below) which truly says it all. A letter to the Editor ( letters@nypost.com ) is also a good idea, as well as letters to the NY Times, which gratefully, has also covered this issue well and was first to break the story: ( letters@nytimes.com )

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/editorial_fed_geese_slaughter_was_5AEChbteNtmcyaNOcgTAUP?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME

There is a reason geese are lovingly portrayed in childhood fables and nursery rhymes of "Mother Goose."

It is because of the gentle nature of these birds and their outstanding parenting and protection skills towards their young.

If Canada Geese have proliferated despite all of man's attempts to "eradicate," "remove," hunt, gas, harass and destroy, it is mostly due to the strong family ties of these birds, as well as their organizational, communicational and parental protection skills.

Indeed, these are qualities that one might think should be greatly admired, respected and even emulated.

Instead, Canada geese have been vilified for their devotion to their young and to each other. They are slaughtered for their abilities to survive and proliferate against great odds.

For shame on us as the truly inferior species to the magnificent geese in terms of human abuse and abandonment to children, high divorce rates, assorted "anxiety disorders," and domestic violence and murder.

Perhaps it is more envy and jealousy that compels us of to launch nationwide "eradication" campaigns against the regal and gregarious Canada Geese? Perhaps they remind us too much of our inadequacies?

After all, humans on our own, cannot fly.

And no fables or nursery rhymes are dedicated to "Mother Human." -- PCA

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

Please save the date for a vigil in the park on this coming Saturday July 17th at 6:30 p.m. by the lake on Prospect Park's Southwest Side near the Vanderbilt Playground and Gazebo. We will spend some time honoring the geese recently massacred by government officials with the park's permission. We will place xeroxes of the geese by the water, we're looking into getting 400 xeroxes, one for each goose killed. Please make copies if you can, and bring them. More info to come...

This information comes from:

Facebook For the love of the geese in Prospect Park

Another website covering this issue:

Facebook Prospect Park

HSUS Urges Hault to Goose Slaughter -- Press Release

(Picture Left: Two of the now grown goslings at Turtle Pond.)


Introduction: The below is a press release just issued by The Humane Society of the United States.

While we greatly applaud the call to stop the goose killings, it comes too late for the thousands of Canada Geese who have already been rounded up in the New York area and slaughtered in "undisclosed locations."

Nevertheless, the statement from HSUS must be used to pressure federal, state and local leaders to immediately cease and disist (for now and the future) the vicious clandestine operations being conducted all over the country of round up and kill of Canada geese. Actions must instead be directed towards implementation of the humane alternatives as suggested in the press release.

These efforts are ongoing and must continue despite the fact the geese will soon be able to fly again. There is next year and the following years to consider. -- PCA


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:


The Humane Society of the United States Urges Halt to Goose Slaughter

NEW YORK (July 14, 2010) -

The Humane Society of the United States calls on New York officials to immediately halt its program to kill resident Canada geese and work instead on a plan that will truly protect public safety and clears the geese from certain areas.

News outlets have reported that many New Yorkers are also distressed about the city's contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture which resulted in the recent killing of 400 resident Canada geese in Brooklyn's Prospect Park and includes plans to round up more geese this week.

"This inhumane, ineffective and costly contract is the wrong way to address the goose population," said Patrick Kwan, New York state director for The HSUS. Scientists at the Smithsonian Institute have examined feather remains from the 2009 US Airways Flight 1549 bird strike and determined that the Canada geese involved were from a migrating population, not the local resident populations targeted by these roundups.

Many of the geese now being killed would never have been hatched if the city had adopted The HSUS' recommendations in 2009 to implement a comprehensive program to render goose eggs unviable, along with other effective tactics.

Communities across the country have had tremendous success with such programs that include treating eggs so they don't hatch, modifying habitats so they don't attract geese, and using trained dogs to make geese fly elsewhere.

A comprehensive, transparent and publicly supported management plan which includes these components is sorely needed to address the goose issue.

The HSUS offers extensive resources for developing programs to humanely reduce conflicts with geese and other wild animals.

Facts* Airport safety programs can keep the flying public safe and can be humane. The best programs use long-term strategies to permanently reduce the conditions that attract geese to airports.

* Killing geese merely opens habitat for other geese to fill. The answer is to treat the problem at the source-make airports and surrounding areas undesirable habitat to the birds while preventing flock growth with egg addling programs.

* Federal law protects Canada geese; however, that only means that people cannot harm birds without US Fish and Wildlife Service permission.
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Canada Goose Killings - What Do We Tell Our Children? What Do We Tell Ourselves?

One has to wonder what the parents of children who've grown up admiring the geese of Prospect Park will answer when asked, "Mommy, what happened to the geese?"

Should they tell them, "The geese flew off to Disneyworld?" Or, should they voice the truth:

"Our government decided to round up and gas them all."

It is a hideous message when our city and federal officials communicate to us that we'd better not get too cozy or nature-loving with the wildlife in our parks less we show up one day to find all the animals gone.

Gone in clandestine, middle of the night, swoops from men with nets, cages and secret, hidden buildings where the screams of the victims cannot be heard by public or filmed by media as the poisoned gas infiltrates the victims' lungs and suffocates their lives away.

For shame on our Mayor, Brooklyn Parks Department, Federal officials and most of all, any human that would sit back and allow atrocity like this to occur with nary a protest. -- PCA

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