06/10/00

Wisconsin Goose Kill Plan Discredited by Experts

Oshkosh -- Wildlife Services, a division of the USDA, is on a rampage to exploit Canada geese for financial gain by promoting its goose killing services. Municipalities that think that this agency has any interest (or experience) in helping solve goose conflicts are naively unaware of the agency's true motives.

Wildlife Services functions remarkably like a private business in that it can charge "customers" for its extermination services. It is no wonder that the agency is aggressively suggesting killing programs to local officials instead of more effective forms of control. Killing is more economically lucrative for Wildlife Services.

While behaving as though it were a private entity exempt from public scrutiny, Wildlife Services is still required to justify its killing programs by doing an Environmental Assessment. Indeed, the agency has gone through the motions of preparing such a document.

However, it is evident from the analyses presented below that Wildlife Services' plan to kill geese in Wisconsin is not only seriously flawed and based on misrepresented information, but the agency has willfully made public participation extremely difficult.

Comments on the Environmental Assessment by:

Dr. Ann Frisch, National Coordinator, Coalition to Protect Canada Geese

Dr. Gary Pearson, DVM, Waterfowl Expert