The Long, Sordid History of USDA Wildlife Services

The long, sordid war on Canada geese is, in reality, just the tip of the iceberg.

A few days ago, the following was posted in comment to  (61) Call of the Canada Geese :

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"The NY Canada Goose Environmental Assessment says 'while the biological carrying capacity for resident Canada geese in NY may be greater than the statewide population, the 'wildlife acceptance capacity' (WAC) is probably lower.'    So that means the environment can support the population and the only reason for killing is people don't find the goose population acceptable...which is no wonder given the lies spewed by the USDA about them and the fact they don't teach communities humane methods of managing their population." 

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Rarely are truer statements posted on Facebook pages and indeed there are certain terms from this we need to remember, such as "Wildlife Acceptance Capacity" (WAC).

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As the writer correctly points out, this has nothing to do with whether a species (such as Canada geese) has reproduced beyond the environment's ability to support it. It has everything to do with human tolerance and acceptance of natural wildlife as the very name implies.

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For a number of years now, it has been the goal of the Department of the Interior and numerous other state and city agencies to "reduce" by 2/3rds, the number of geese allowed to breathe in New York State:

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Officials Plan to Eliminate 170,000 Canada Geese in New York - NYTimes.com

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And yet, even at its highest number, according to the statement above, ..."the biological carrying capacity for resident Canada geese in NY may be greater than the statewide population."

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In other words, even at 250,00, Canada geese would not be overpopulating their environment in New York State.

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So, what does it say that we would endeavor to "reduce" by 2/3rds (to 75,000) an already low population of geese for the environment supporting them? 

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It says that we humans must have a shockingly low tolerance and "acceptance" of natural wildlife.  -- Either that, or we are not making our beliefs and values known to our political representatives.

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Moreover,  though there are many people (most notably, political conservatives) who seem to shun nearly everything the federal government stands for, these same people are often among the very first to "call in the feds" when they want animals (including geese) killed for becoming inconvenient. 

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But, of course, this is ultimately not a "conservative" or "liberal" issue as much as it is a social issue of human tolerance and acceptance.

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And yet our history of wildlife acceptance seems a sorry one with almost constant reliance on the federal government to secretly "get rid of animals" whom we have deemed some kind of "nuisance" or inconvenience.

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And no one performs these secret wildlife exterminations better than USDA Wildlife Services.

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Rather than me attempting to write out the long, sordid history of Wildlife Services, the guys at Predator Defense.org have done a much better job than I could hope to do.

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Please take the time to visit their web site and read carefully and fully.

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http://www.predatordefense.org/USDA.htm

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And then consider that their focus is the war on predators in this country -- especially coyotes.

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They barely touch our war on the bird life in the United States -- especially our beleaguered and forever maligned Canada geese.  -- PCA

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