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We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts.

Animal Defenders of Westchester
P.O. Box 205
Yonkers, NY 10704

 

Westchester4Geese

The Facts About NYC's Annual Canada Goose Slaughter

From GooseWatch NYC
May 2013

Last summer, USDA Wildlife Services killed 290 Canada geese living in New York City's parks and on average the city paid $144 per goose killed. The total cost to NYC taxpayers for USDA's services between 2009 and 2014 will be $308,582. Thus far, 3,776 geese in public parks have been killed, as well as 751 geese rounded up from Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in July 2012.

In past years, geese were gassed and dumped in landfills, USDA now trucks the birds alive to remote commercial processing facilities and foists the tainted meat to food banks, in an attempt to spin the killing as a charity act.

Meanwhile, serious threats to aviation safety are ignored as the city proceeds with construction of the Marine Waste Transfer stations, and local airports fail to implement radar technology and other meaningful long term solutions.

For the past four summers New York City has contracted with USDA Wildlife Services to lethally remove geese from public parks. On July 8, 2010, the residents of the Prospect Park area in Brooklyn, NY awoke to find the park's otherwise boisterous lake almost entirely devoid of waterfowl. This summer, that scene will replay itself as New Yorkers across the five boroughs discover that geese have disappeared from nearby parks and at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. The City claims its intention is to reduce the threat to air safety, however, instituted without public input or approval this policy has been met with opposition from aviation experts and policy leaders, and has sparked outrage from New Yorkers who care about animals, parks and urban wildlife, and transparency in government.

According to officials, the geese are "euthanized" -- a term that is understood to refer to gentle assisted death in circumstances of terminal injury or illness, and refuted by veterinarians in connection with goose roundups. "Carbon dioxide asphyxiation used by the USDA is an especially cruel process that slowly strangles geese as they struggle to breathe and compete for oxygen," said John G. Hynes, DVM, USDA Accredited Veterinarian. Slaughtering and butchering geese is never euthanasia, by definition. USDA biologists claim scientific justifications for killing geese while soliciting kill contracts with municipalities across the country. This is a blatant conflict of interest, and USDA biologists can hardly be seen as credible. Canada geese have become a scapegoat and a cash cow for USDA Wildlife Services, the federal agency collecting millions of dollars each year for their extermination services. Photos of last summer's massive removal operation at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge were published and made available to the public for the first time.

The meat from slaughtered geese is delivered to food banks with a warning label from the Health Department that it should not be consumed more than twice per month because it may have been exposed to environmental contaminants. Eating goose meat can be extremely harmful to one's health. Wild urban geese travel to many different locations, are exposed to various toxins including mercury and lead, and pesticides. Yet the meat is not tested and no effort is made by officials to determine if it is dangerous. Mary E. Brosnahan, Executive Director for Coalition for the Homeless said, "The Coalition objects, in the strongest possible terms, to the plans by officials to slaughter hundreds of New York City's Canada geese, and to the use of homeless New Yorkers to achieve that end. The plan to feed homeless people the potentially tainted carcasses of these birds through a local soup kitchen or food bank sets a dangerous double standard." In 2011 the USDA donated only 474 lbs. of goose meat, less than one pound per goose, and it cost $6 to "process" each of the 575 geese removed from Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. The scheme is intended to take advantage of needy individuals for public relations reasons, and attempts to wedge animal advocates against advocates for the poor and hungry.

�The killing of NYC's geese is costly, ineffective, and shamefully inhumane," said David Karopkin, founder of GooseWatch NYC. "The city has been contracting with an animal killing agency known for cruelty that operates without transparency or public oversight. Instead of 'doing everything possible to help those in need' the current policy endangers the public even more. While geese are being taken out of our parks, what is being done to address the root causes of threats to air safety and long term solutions?" National and local animal protection organizations such as In Defense of Animals, the Humane Society of the United States, New York City Audubon Society, Friends of Animals, and PeTA have denounced New York City's goose slaughters, advocating instead for proven habitat modification and population management techniques.

Slaughter only clears the area temporarily as other geese will repopulate the vacant desirable habitat. "Environmentalists know the golden rule of ecosystems: if one species is removed, another species will take over," said Natural Resources Protective Association ecologist Ida Sandoff. "So if the geese are gone, there will be more resources available for whatever species moves in to occupy their niche. And that species may be even more problematic." This ineffectiveness has been demonstrated by countless documented examples of locations where geese were killed, only to be replaced by others in a short period of time.

Notable aviation experts and biologists have spoken out as well, explaining that killing geese achieves no long-term mitigation of the risks posed by birds to air safety. "I have not seen where [culling] has been effective as a long-term solution," Jim Hall, chairman for the National Transportation Safety Board during the Clinton administration, said. "We've done a pretty good job of controlling, if not eliminating, most major risks in aviation, but no airport is immune from this threat. What should happen is an effort to eliminate causes for the hazards, but it seems like politics is trumping safety," he added. Ron Merritt, a biologist and former chief for the Air Force's Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard (BASH) team, agrees. "Killing 1,000 geese really isn't going to do anything, If you kill them, nature with fill that vacuum and a new species will pop up in its place."

Instead of eliminating avian attractants, New York City is currently constructing two Marine Waste Transfer stations in close proximity to LaGuardia Airport, and despite public opposition the Bloomberg Administration is pushing forward with the projects. Veteran aviation experts, including Hall, Merritt, and even Capt. Sully Sullenberger, have spoken out against the planned location of these facilities, as an obvious "bird magnet" which will endanger public safety. Following the "Miracle on the Hudson" the National Transportation Safety Board issued 33 specific recommendations to the FAA to improve air safety, including implementing radar technology, increasing aircraft visibility, and eliminating attractants such as the Marine Waste Transfer stations; notably, the report did not suggest that killing geese or other birds would result in improved conditions.

The annual New York City Canada goose slaughter creates the false impression that our leaders are taking legitimate action to resolve aviation safety issues when they aren't. The slaughter deflects public attention from the desperately needed and more effective responses to the serious consequences of airplane collisions with birds, such as replacing antiquated technology with avian radar systems. Killing geese in New York City each summer will never substantively address the chance of collisions with migratory birds, as millions of birds pass through New York City during the winter months. The flock of geese which famously collided with Flight 1549 were DNA tested to have originated from Labrador, Canada. There is no dispute that it is impossible to eliminate "bird strikes" - over 1.2 million flights take off and land at New York City's major airports each year, and less than 400 total bird strikes are reported each year. Leading causes of fatal plane crash accidents are pilot error (50%), mechanical error (22%) and weather (12%), but less than 1% can be attributed to the entire category of wildlife. Killing our way out of conflicts with geese is simply impractical, and a long term strategy is required.

GooseWatch NYC stands opposed to the roundup and slaughter of Canada geese in New York City and beyond, and is committed to their protection through public education, increasing transparency, political and legal action, on the ground efforts, and advocacy for more ethical, practical, and effective solutions to conflicts with geese. For more information please visit www.GooseWatchNYC.com and sign our petition.

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