We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts.
Letter as published on
YonkersTimes.com
June 29, 2022
ACTION ALERT: Whose NYS is it? DEC W'chester Wildlife massacre; Forcing NYS youth hunt - 16 July:
PLEASE CONTACT CE GEORGE LATIMER AND POLITELY DEMAND HE STOP IGNORING THE
PITIFUL, WASTEFUL WILDLIFE MASSACRE IN WHITE PLAINS. (Read
Westchester Airport Wildlife Mitigation.)
EMAIL:
[email protected]
cc: [email protected]
cc:
[email protected]
PH (msg 24/7) (914) 995-2900
There is a peaceful little hamlet in White Plains called Fisher Lane
Park, where folks on bicycles pedal past folks strolling by, enjoying
nature’s glory. In approximately three weeks this calm will be shattered as
NYSDEC’s Wildlife Services invades the quiet suburb, chasing terrified
ducks, geese and goslings into the woods, grabbing the babies by their wings
and killing them, to the horror of onlookers…paid for with your tax dollars
– while Westchester County officials look the other way.
This is done via contract with Westchester airport for wildlife
‘mitigation.’ However, the FAA calls for such efforts to be conducted within
five miles of the airport – and Fisher Lane Park is seven miles away; WS
makes a unilateral decision to add Fisher Park since it is profitable. We
discovered what WS was doing during meetings with the county, first covered
by Lohud.
https://www.lohud.com/story/news/transit/2014/08/21/westchester-eyes-new-methods-scare-birds-airport/14388997/
We investigated this issue when Capt. Sullenberger of ‘Miracle on the
Hudson’ fame urged airports to upgrade from antiquated, deficient lethal
controls to superior modern technology. Furthermore, as attorney Del
Seligman discovered, The Memorandum of Understanding between the FAA and the
USDA Wildlife Services makes the protocol for the management of wildlife
abundantly clear and does not provide for the arbitrary and capricious
destruction of wildlife as the first alternative in wildlife hazard
management. Pleas to the county on this issue – even just for use of
non-lethal methods at the park – are ignored as officials refuse to go up
against what has been called Agriculture’s Misnamed Agency, since its’
‘services’ amount to the slaughter of millions of animals each year, with no
oversight.
Wildlife Services prefers slaughtering animals instead of non-lethal alternatives – because that’s where the money is: Appx $300,000 per three year contract in this case alone. Wildlife Services has had a stranglehold on treatment of our wildlife since its inception; every single destructive proposal by them is unchallenged. Because WS is composed of hunters making laws for hunters, those proposals are usually lethal – and always push for more and more hunting. This is unchallenged despite the fact that NYS parks are overwhelmingly used for non-consumptive activities (.e.camping, photography, etc).. Even the NYS Snowmobile Assn recently fought the DEC’s attempt to extend hunting into the Christmas season – and lost.
The NYSDEC’s newest outrage is a request to the NYS Legislature to force
counties to opt-in to laws permitting 12 yr olds to stalk and massacre
animals – which originally was a choice; The NYSDEC is panicking over loss
of hunting license revenue: Statistically hunting here is rapidly falling
out of favor. But as our world becomes more treacherous by the moment, is
this really the time to force laws that encourage children to kill?
https://www2.erie.gov/legislature/sites/www2.erie.gov.legislature/files/uploads/Session_Folders/2022/7/22COMM.%207M-12.pdf
Whose NYS is it? Wildlife mgmt agencies are being denounced all over the
country. We call upon the NYS legislature to deny this request to force
counties to opt expand the killing spree; we call upon all NYS politicians
to stand up to this monolith by demanding it be more transparent, adding a
non-hunter to their advisory board – now prohibited by law; and by utilizing
far more humane methods of ‘mgmt,’
And while this nation is rocked with violence and havoc, the pitiful
illegal massacre in Fisher Lane Park continues. We have reached out to the
County Executive with no response. We urge Westchester representatives to
bring peace here – so that folks who enter Fisher Lane Park seeking a refuge
of tranquility won’t instead be subjected to fear, carnage and sorrow.
Kiley Blackman, Founder, Animal Defenders of Westchester, Tuckahoe/p>
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