Sometimes, you have to know where you have been in order to know where you are and where you are going.
Because of the community outrage much has been written since last July, of the Prospect Park goose gassings.
But, because this massacre occurred in the wee hours of the morning and because the Prospect Park geese were trucked to Kennedy Airport for the actual gassings, by the time park goers arrived at the park on July 8th last year, all that was left to indicate something odd had occurred were clumps of feathers and discarded plastic ties (used to bound the birds' feet).
As reported previously in this journal, avian savvy bird lovers suspected wrong-doing even based on that little evidence and notified the press. The rest is history.
And while the Prospect Park goose gassings were then investigated and widely reported, little was actually known or uncovered in terms of actual details. -- Such as how 368 flightless (and usually wary) geese and their goslings were quickly rounded up, corralled, grabbed, bound, crated and stuffed into trucks in less than a couple of hours?
One might suspect the use of drug-laden food to so expediently accomplish such a Herculean task. (Usually when a goose is injured, for example, it is almost impossible to capture the animal as numerous news articles have attested to.)
But, of course we had no evidence of tainted methodology and nor was the USDA freely admitting to such deviant actions.
However, out of New Jersey comes an article that a month before the Prospect Park goose gassings, sheds light on exactly how USDA is able to round up large numbers of Canada geese at seemingly breakneck speed.
The use of " metallic magnetic slabs." These are used to "disorient" the birds who normally navigate by utilizing the magnetic fields of the earth:
The above article is important for many reasons.
Unlike Prospect Park where the live geese were rushed to Kennedy Airport for the killings, the geese in the small New Jersey park were stuffed into trucks and gassed on site.
Their bodies were then stuffed into bags and discovered by an early morning park goer.
Even though the witness (Pat Sayer) reported seeing "at least 100 goose body bags" on the ground, park officials insist the number of geese killed was "only about 30."
But, they would not need 7 USDA trucks to gas "only 30 geese."
Even in the face of evidence and witness testimony, officials apparently still choose to cover-up and misrepresent the truth.
Moreover, when asked why the roundups and gassings took place between 3 and 4 AM (when the park is normally closed) an official answered, "Because we would not want the public to be exposed to the deadly gasses used to exterminate the animals." (Emphasis supplied.)
That is a very telling statement and certainly bears refute to any claims of so-called "euthanasia."
Even Carol Bannerman who is a spokesperson for the USDA admits, "The geese can take anywhere from a few minutes up to 45 minutes to die in the gas chambers."
(For more information on "euthanasia" by gassing, please go to this link:
The New Jersey article near the top of this entry is very important for all of the reasons cited -- and more:
It shows us where we have been.
In terms of where we are now, there is some good news.
NBC did an excellent report on the 11PM news last night, covering the current "Goose Watch" at Prospect Park:
Kudos to Edita Birnkrant of Friends of Animals and David Karopkin for being such outstanding representatives of the cause. And thanks to the reporter, Chris Glorioso for covering it so accurately.
Especially telling in this video is the reporter remarking that "There are no geese right now on the lake" and equating that to the killings of last year.
In fact, 89% of the goose population in New York City has been wiped out over the past few years.
It is now a battle to save what few remain in our public parks and other city locations.
"To know where we are now, we have to know where we've been."
And what we do today, creates the tomorrows. -- PCA
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