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Westchester4Geese
The Facts About NYC's Annual Canada Goose Slaughter
From GooseWatch NYC 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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