USDA Wildlife Services -- Conductors of Animal Torture, Abuse and Incompetence

 The report below (which is a must read) is from Fox News today:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/03/12/animal-torture-abuse-called-regular-practice-within-federal-wildlife-agency/

It reminds me of a story that Cleveland Amory, writer and founder of the Fund for Animals used to tell:

"I was in a debate with a vivisector one day.  I asked him his views on the experiment in which a dog's head was transplanted on the body of a cat.  He proceeded to explain the reasons and importance of such research to which I then responded:  'I just made up that experiment to prove that you would defend anything.'" 

It seems Carol Bannerman and her pals at USDA "Wildlife Services" would also defend anything, including the deliberate experimental poisoning of dogs who were supposed to be "euthanized" in a shelter.  It makes Wildlife Services' definition of "euthanasia" a complete and egregious lie.

The fact is, if we cannot trust WS on simple word definition, we cannot trust them on anything -- including the so-called "humane" goose roundups and slaughters conducted in city parks and so-called, "wildlife refuges."

But, if such reports are horrifying in their sheer barbarism and cruelty, they are mystifying in terms of government wastes of money and actually exacerbating a problem, rather than supposedly "solving" it.

Note this passage from the article:

"And the more coyotes that are killed, the more coyotes will reproduce. If a member of the pack is killed, for instance, the alpha female responds by producing more litters. 

"Not only is this ethically indefensible, it's ecologically insane," Camilla Fox, executive director of Project Coyote, said of the killings each year by the predator control program."

Scientific studies have been conducted that show coyotes breed younger, more often and produce larger litters in areas they are preyed upon by humans as compared to areas they are not.  This is known as compensational reproduction.    

One suspects the same is true of geese, who like coyotes (and humans) are wily, adaptable and intelligent. 

Under these ecological realities, not only are WS animal extermination programs exceedingly cruel and brutal, they are also ineffective in limiting population growth.  In fact, one could say they actually exacerbate so-called "overpopulation problems" by causing animals to breed more than they normally would. 

So, what are the solutions to nature-intolerant people like Kathie Lee Gifford who, on the Today show yesterday blamed geese because her untrained dogs don't respond to the "come" command and her husband who "scratched" himself cleaning the dog is on "blood thinners?"

Gifford might do well to read one of the comments posted on her Hoda and Kathie Lee blog yesterday: (Can you help KLG with her goose problem? - KLG and Hoda ):

".....As a professional dog trainer, I used some of my techniques on one particular male and female pair of geese that came to our home and adjoining pond. Within a few weeks they would actually "Come when called" and fly to greet me. Most people cannot get their dogs to do that! They nested for four years and brought their goslings to me as well and allowed me to feed and pet them.

One day, one of the goslings was badly injured and they brought it to me and left it on the steps of my house. I believe that they knew I would care for it.

They did not however become friendly to anyone else and the male would "play dead" on the top of the pond by putting his neck and head on top of the water. Neighbors would stop by to tell me 'He was dead and floating on the pond" but as soon as they left he would swim to me.

Geese take a mate for life and will stay with the goslings for many years until they have their own families. They are extremely protective and loyal parents. They also have a pair of ducks that live with them for protection. I know how bizarre this sounds...but thought you might find the training part interesting.

Here's the answer to your problem:

Once I had trained the mating pair, the male would not allow any other geese on the property. As it turned out, that was actually the best way to not have flocks of them at our home. So, in your case, you can hire a a dog trained specifically to chase geese from the property; probably a Border Collie or Herding Dog. Eventually they will find somehwere else to go but the ones that are nesting or with goslings will not leave easily.
Thanks for your time.
Jenna Robbins
Murphdog & Company"

It is amazing that an ordinary citizen (through simple observances of and interactions with geese) understands what all the so-called "experts" and public officials cannot.

Yes, an established pair of nesting geese will often chase other geese out as in the end, nature is all about hierarchy, balance and order.

And nature is also about some animal species learning to compensate for human predations (though unfortunately, not all).   

Any community (like Mamaroneck) that signs on to USDA WS slaughters of geese (or other animals) is not only partner to barbarity and massacre, but also incompetence and waste of tax money.

The geese, like coyotes, will find a way even if it means leaving with people like Ms. Robbins for safekeeping, their threatened goslings.  -- PCA

                                                             

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