Aventis Pharmaceuticals had planned to participate in a plan by the Missouri Department of Conservation to round up geese from a number of sites around the state and have them killed in a slaugherhouse.

With many corporate parks successfully using non-lethal goose control programs, the Coalition criticized Aventis for not being able to do the same.

An action alert prompted many people to contact the company to express their concern. The capturing and killing of Canada geese is cruel and has no practical value - other geese just move in to take advantage of the vacant habitat. Killing does nothing to address the conditions that attract geese in the first place.

Aventis Pharmaceuticals notified the Coalition today that it was withdrawing from the program.

The company said that they held intensive deliberations on their past methods and the option of conducting a round up and kill of the Canada geese on their property.

In a statement that became available today, Aventis spokesman Matt Tidwell, Sr. Manager, North America and Kansas City Industrial Operations wrote, in part:

"As has been the case throughout the past four years, our first priority is to endeavor to find and implement all non-lethal means to drive geese from our campus. In the past few weeks, Aventis has been made aware of additional non-lethal means that may be available to us. Our internal team has made the decision to immediately postpone all lethal elimination tactics so that they can spend the time and attention needed to examine these other methods."

It was also mentioned that Aventis had been working with the Missouri Department of Conservation for four years to try to resolve their goose conflicts using non-lethal methods. This reflects very badly on the Department of Conservation and suggests what has been suspected all along, that they have no expertise in the area of non-lethal goose control and can offer nothing to those seeking to use such methods. Fortunately, other resources are available.

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