Same story, different victims:
News today out of Davis, California where citizens stood up at City Council hearings to express outrage over the killing of a coyote family near a golf course by USDA "Wildlife Services".:
Members of the council then voted to end the contract with USDA.
Once again we have a situation where someone (in this case, a golf course) makes a call to USDA to complain about animals and like "Johnny on the spot," USDA is out with their expert swat teams, "takes care of the problem" and then sends a bill to the taxpayers of the community.
Only in Davis, many citizens were not happy paying the bill for what really was a federal agency acting (once again) like a rogue private extermination company and secretly killing animals that people in the community regarded and actually wanted protected.
Very similar to the situation in New York City and other areas of the country where thousands of geese have been killed at the hands of USDA "Wildlife Services" with citizens not learning of the massacres until after they occur (if indeed they are informed at all).
Only in New York City, the USDA is much more entrenched and a virtual "block" on the goose killing story seems to have been successfully pulled off as none of the major press reported on the massacre of 751 geese from Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge (and other areas) last week.
Those who rely on the New York Times as their major news source would believe that only 400 geese were rounded up from New York City this year, a number far "down" from last year.
The New York Times failed to report at all, the roundup and killing of 751 geese from a national wildlife refuge last week -- a number that brings up this year's goose cull to well over a thousand and more like 1400 than the "400" quoted in the Times article.
This is very strange considering it was the New York Times who "broke" the story of the goose roundup at Prospect Park in 2010 -- a story that later went national and caused much embarrassment to the leaders of New York City, the USDA and the city itself.
Though it cannot be proven, it appears that someone very high and very powerful "got" to the New York Times this year (and other major media) with probably one phone call:
"Squelch the story."
The reality is that had 1,000 people showed up the other day to protest the NYC goose killings this year in front of Senator Gillibrand's office, it is highly unlikely the Times or other major media would have covered it.
How could they, after all, cover a protest against an issue and happening that they failed to report in the first place?
The story of goose killings in New York City this year is one that was mostly silenced in the major press -- just like the manner and method by which the geese actually died. More than a week later, we still don't know. We have three different media explanations.
Federal government slaughter of geese and coyotes are remarkably similar.
In both cases, the killings are mostly secret and conducted with little or no public input (though government slaughter of coyotes has been occurring much longer).
In both cases the government (or specifically, USDA Wildlife Services) acts more like a private extermination company than a governmental agency by usually responding to "complaints" from private individuals or property owners. --- Not something the writers of the Constitution had in mind when formulating the roles for federal government.
In both cases, the names of the guilty (i.e. "complainants" ) are kept hidden and secret supposedly for reasons of "protection."
And in both cases, the USDA has seemingly perfected methods for roundup and killings with the expertise and expediency of a pathological serial killer.
Few dare to question and even fewer dare to report.
But, at some point people, politicians and some gutsy reporters are going to start to ask questions, investigate and connect dots.
That is already happening in California with the publication of the Sacrament Bee's investigative series on USDA Wildlife Services
Wildlife investigation - The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, California and even the reporting of the latest coyote incident also from California.
We need some of this intellectual curiosity and standard for full and accurate reporting to spread to New York City where even a week following the goose slaughters we are still in the grips of a seeming media blackout on the story.
We don't even know how our geese died.
It is apparent in New York City that our media is acting as a mouthpiece for government, rather than a watchdog.
As noted, the little media that actually reported on the wildlife refuge goose slaughter mostly ran verbatim, press releases either from Gillibrand's office or the USDA.
The citizens of New York City deserve better.
At the very least, we deserve, like the people of California, the truth.
The truth, not of what caused Tom Cruise's divorce, but what is actually happening to the wildlife in our parks and wildlife "refuges."
We are supposedly one of the greatest cities in the world with one of the most respected national newspapers.
The one that publishes "Only the news that fit's to print."
But, slaughter on a wildlife refuge was apparently news "not fit to print?"
Readers of the New York Times are not even aware that a slaughter of 751 geese on a national wildlife refuge in New York City occurred at all.
But, the citizens in California are aware of the killing of one family of coyotes near a golf course.
New York City media and Federal Government to the citizens (and geese) of New York City:
"Drop dead. We will tell you about Cruise, but not what is happening in your own back yard -- or wildlife "refuge." -- PCA
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