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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

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

10 July 2013

CONTACT:
Kiley Blackman  
[email protected]
www.adow.org   

WE'RE COOKING UP A GOOD DEAL FOR THE FOOD BANK ON JULY 15

We are offering to donate to the Westchester Food Bank  the equivalent amount of monies a goose flesh donation would take in - if they will agree to stop accepting goose flesh 'donations.'  This toxic flesh is the result of cruelly killing birds because they poop, or because they have the audacity to fly in the air while planes are flying :  We will match the prospected amount of geese flesh in a dollar amount, to be raised on Gofundme.com and Indiegogo, with additional private funding.  
 
Last week in Jamaica Bay Wildlife 'Refuge' over 500 flightless geese and their babies were rounded up and slaughtered by the USDA.  Similar roundups occurred  at other Long Island locales and near Cornwall, NY.   This questionable agency then seeks to put a charitable spin on this unnecessary killing by 'donating' the resulting flesh to food banks that will accept it.
 
Amazingly, the Westchester Food Bank's Jean Wilcox has publicly stated that they 'welcome' the pointlessly-killed goose flesh -  despite the fact that she herself acknowledges, 'There is a large, daunting WARNING label on the flesh, cautioning the poor to eat it no more than once a month' (!) (Exclamation mark ours).   
Wilcox then implausibly backs up her position by saying '(The flesh) flew out of our inventory - so apparently people liked it.'  By that reasoning, the lust for cigarettes also justifies their consumption. What Wilcox is saying is that poor people who have no choice are happy to get anything - because this same flesh is NOT sold in fancy restaurants to fancy people.  
 
Apart from the facts of the highly-questionable nature of the USDA killings of geese, their flesh is a suspect, tainted morass of jet fuel, heavy applications of pesticides, concentrations of carbon monoxide from heavy car traffic along parkways,  and the ingestion of carbon dioxide gas which is used to kill them.  Jean Grassman, associate professor of health and nutrition sciences at Brooklyn College, said a big issue with wild goose meat is a specific urban contaminant called polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB.  �The concern is that they�re developmental toxicants,� Grassman said . According to her, PCB levels are higher in aquatic systems, which is to say environments frequented by waterfowl like geese.

In fact, the Coalition for the Homeless' own director, Mary Brosnahan, has spoken out vehemently against the practice of dumping toxic, pointlessly killed flesh on the poor, saying, '"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 which poor men, women and children will eat unregulated and insufficiently inspected flesh.

'In addition to the incalculable moral and ethical costs such needless killing entails,  there is the federal inspection and proper testing of the flesh for possible contaminants - if that was even done.  If not done, then Westchester food banks participated in a dangerous double standard in which poor men, women and children ate unregulated and insufficiently inspected flesh.'

New friend and supporter, Fr. John R. Sheehan, of the Xavier Society for the Blind, has poignantly offered his opinion on this sad, questionable endeavor.   'I continue to be horrified and surprised at the lack of common sense we human beings can sometimes demonstrate,' states Fr. Sheehan.  'The latest incident was when I learned that in order to �control� geese in populated or public areas, the birds are �culled.� These poor birds, in addition to being driven from their natural habitats and flight paths are now systematically being targeted. They are exposed to pesticides, their food sources are polluted and now they�re �culled.�
 
'But that�s not the ultimate horror. Some smart soul has decided that the meat from these culls culls be made available for consumption, and made available to food banks and organizations feeding the poor and homeless. So meat from animals exposed to noxious chemicals and poisons is being given to feed people who are homeless and in serious trouble.  Does anything more need to be said? This is not an issue that is complicated. And now that it has been exposed, it needs to be halted."

Kiley Blackman, founder of Westchester4Geese said, 'These majestic birds, who were 'restocked' here by a govt program after being hunted to near extinction, are now being vilified because they poop just like everyone else...and unfairly blamed for plane strikes despite the fact that radar technology is being used elsewhere successfully to prevent such accidents, despite the fact that aviation officials have repeatedly spoken out again slaughter...and despite the fact that birds have a right to fly - simple but true.  What has happened to common decency?  Westchester Food Bank, we're offering you a chance to do something wonderful and admirable, with absolutely no loss of incoming goods - and your pantry will be stocked with kindness and consideration for all - in addition to being healthier for all.'