ALEC BALDWIN APPLAUDED BY CANADA GEESE AND FRIENDS AT THE HELEN HAYES PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
On Tuesday, April 29th, during the middle of the day and after the
usual lunch hour, 400 people poured into the Helen Hayes Performing Arts
Center to see Hollywood star Alec Baldwin host a press conference on the
Canada geese. “He stormed into Clarkstown to save the geese,” the
newspaper front-page story reported the following day. In a packed
theater, every TV and radio station in NYC and the lower Hudson Valley
was in attendance with three glaring exceptions, the local cable TKR and
two local papers that did not cover the event. Why? We leave that for
speculation. Alec Baldwin and nine other panelists, who were chosen for
high impact, spoke out forcefully against the killing of Canada geese by
the Town Supervisor of Clarkstown, NY. It was a powerful performance, we
were told. The pressure was on. Many confirmed our guess that this would
be a major turning point in what we can superficially refer to as “the
goose wars,” but is in fact a struggle to appropriate the control of
wildlife from those who don’t care about the individuals that comprise
it. Perhaps we can refer to this as a “custody battle.” This afternoon
it was different, no longer were only the “animal rights” people
speaking out. This time the entrenched powers themselves in the county
and outside came to speak against the heinous act, those who could not
be relegated to the lunatic fringe or discounted. They gave courage to
those who came to join the outspoken.
Our speakers were the following:
Roger Caras, President of the ASPCA, Author of numerous books and
host of radio and TV programs on animals, spoke. His catchphrase
revolved around one word for what this supervisor had done and
threatened again to do: DUMB!
The Hon. Dr. Felicia Deyrup, Mayor of Upper Nyack, which is a town
within Clarkstown, talked about how acts such as these desensitize
children and how violence of any kind has a negative impact on society.
The Hon. Thom. Kleiner, Supervisor of Orangetown, which borders
Clarkstown, said that Holbrook has to be commended for having the
courage of his convictions, but he just had the wrong convictions. [That
boils down to Roger’s keyword: “DUMB!”]
William Heinz – Golf Course Superintendent of the Hampshire Country
Club in Mamaroneck, NY, said he had been asked to shoot the geese, but
got May, his Border Collie, instead, and has been free of problems ever
since!
Margaret Hayes Young, Wildlife and Conservation Chair, Sierra Club,
talked about how during her childhood, the Hudson River was so bad,
there wasn’t a single goose on the river, but that now they are there,
it is thrilling to see these magnificent and precious aristocrats of
nature.
Dr. Gregg Feigelson, Chair, Coalition to Prevent the Destruction of
Canada Geese, spoke about the solutions that are proposed as being an
insult to our intelligence [echoing Roger’s word: DUMB!]
Dr. Mark Lerman, a well-known Rockland veterinarian and wildlife
rehabilitator, talked about what to do if you wanted to attract geese –
which is everything this supervisor is doing! [DUMB!]
Marc Berkowitz then came up to speak. Marc was someone who could have
had maximum impact had we sufficient time to give a history lesson on
the Holocaust. Marc was Mengele’s real “messenger” during the Holocaust
and a consultant to Steven Spielberg for his movie Schindler’s List.
Marc was a “survivor” who wanted to speak out for the geese. A reporter
called that evening and asked, “So what’s with Marc Berkowitz, why was
he there?” “He was there to speak against the casualness of killing,”
“Yeah, in what way?” “He had a message to deliver from Mengele about how
killing is killing, and how easy it is to kill once you get started.”
“I’m just going to drop it,” he said. “I don’t get it.” No one wrote
about it or picked up.
Then, Mary Brosnahan, the Executive Director of the Coalition of the
Homeless, reiterated what she had written a year ago, which also never
got picked up by the local press. It is this:
The Coalition objects, in the strongest possible terms, to the
plans by Clarkstown officials to slaughter hundreds of Canadian 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 sets a dangerous double standard in
which poor men, women and children will eat unregulated and
uninspected flesh.
We believe that there are many non-lethal methods available to
repel the geese from areas in which they are not wanted and we urge
both local and state officials to utilize these methods immediately.
As has been our experience so often over the past fifteen years, when
responsible people gather to examine complex problems, solutions that
are both compassionate and cost-effective can be forged. Our paramount
fear, as the proposed slaughter date approaches, is that innocent,
wild animals will be needlessly killed and that poor New Yorkers will
be injured in the aftermath.
Finally, Baldwin spoke. “Don’t think you’ve done your job by coming
here today,” he said. “There’s a lot more to do. Pick up the phone or a
pen and make your feelings known.” Those words gave people the courage
they needed. There will be a town meeting after this printing at which
scores of Clarkstowners have promised to go to publicly state simply and
truthfully that they do not want the geese killed. Believe it or not,
that’s a first and will go far to dispel the myth that the supervisor
has unanimous support among Clarkstowners. We have been told that the
County Executive’s office was flooded with calls to the point where he
called the Supervisor to ask that he call it off. So far he hasn’t.
The following day an article in our favor covered the front page of
the Rockland Journal News. It showed Baldwin with a goose framing his
face.
The local radio station bashed the supervisor of Clarkstown and his
plan the entire day following the event.
We have continuing plans including trying again to get the geese out
before the slaughter. Please, wish us and the geese luck!!
