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03/06/99 We recently reported on a situation concerning geese in New York City's Central Park. After writing the Commissioner and calling his office, we were happy to report (see story below) that they had successfully kept geese out of the area in question by using simple harrassment techniques. We recently received a written response from Parks Commissioner Henry Stern. Kudos to the Commissioner and his staff for the humane manner in which they handled the situation. 02/07/99 Central Park: Another Goose Situation Resolved Using Humane Methods New York - During the last week of January there was a big fuss over geese in New York City's Central Park, specifically, in an area called "The Sheep Meadow." In short, groundskeepers were becoming frustrated because geese were eating the newly seeded lawn area. A full-page story on this situation appeared in the 1/21/99 edition of the NY Post. New York City Park Commissioner Henry Stern was quoted as saying that they would be repelling the geese "...by any means necessary" - the kind of language that usually suggests overreaction and the use of deadly force. We faxed the Commissioner a letter the day after the story broke offering our assistance in the matter and supplied information on non-lethal control methods. Last week, we contacted the Commissioner's office and were enthusiastically assured that there was no longer any problems with geese: The issue was "not an issue anymore." We were told that the ground crew was successful in convincing the majority of geese to stay out of the area by intensively chasing them away over several days. They said the number of geese was now acceptable and they were "very happy" with the way things worked out. The Parks Department told us that no further actions (aside from periodically chasing some geese) were planned or needed. 01/04/99 Town Board Members Proclaim the Effectiveness of Non-lethal Goose Control Clarkstown, NY - In 1993, the Town Supervisor of Clarkstown began his crusade to have Canada geese killed because of complaints he was receiving about them in and around several town parks. From the very beginning, the plan met with tremendous public resistance, yet he continued to pursue it. In 1996 and 1997, despite having only paid lip service to the use of non-lethal methods of goose control, and with the encouragement of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, 457 geese, including goslings, were rounded up at taxpayer expense and brutally killed in a slaughterhouse. Well before the killings, the Coalition told town officials that this brutality would not solve whatever problems people were having with geese. We proved to be right two years in a row. It wasn't long after all the geese were removed from several town parks and killed that others moved in to fill the vacancy. In some cases, there were more geese in the parks after the killings than before. In 1998, a majority of town board members finally took control of the town's goose controversy and resolved to finally give proven non-lethal methods of control a fair chance. (Before any killing had occurred, these methods were recommended by the County task force on Canada Geese and thoroughly described in a report.) The pilot non-lethal program was a great success. Unlike the killing of the previous two years, the non-lethal methods worked. But don't take our word for it: See what the Clarkstown town board members had to say. The following letter-to-the editor appeared in the December 30, 1998 edition of the Journal-News. PDF version (best for printing): Letter to the Editor (112K)
[We are grateful to Councilwoman Ann Marie Smith for providing us with a copy of the signed letter which was printed in the paper in its entirety.]
11/19/98 DuPage County, Il - Over the past month the geese of DuPage County have been relentlessly slandered with an alarmist publicity campaign, including the usual unsupported claims about public health and population. Even so, the Dupage Environmental Commission announced its commitment to resolving goose-human conflicts in a humane, non-lethal, environmentally sensible way. Last evening, a special meeting was held by the Commission to discuss how to best handle the goose situation based on the Commission's research. Coalition representative Chuck Wills had been monitoring the situation and made a presentation on behalf of geese at the meeting. In advance of the meeting, the Coalition issued press releases refuting all of the exaggerated claims being made about geese. Communities have resorted to a variety of techniques to control geese, ranging from the ineffective, cruel and biologically unsound use of lethality, to very effective measures such as canine harassment (i.e., Border Collies). The Commission's decision to aggressively address the habitat that attracts geese is the first time that such a strong stand has been taken to address the cause (i.e., the overuse of turf grass in certain areas, etc.), rather than the symptoms (i.e., the geese). Their plans include a possible ordinance that prevents developers from using certain practices that make the landscape very inviting to geese. In contrast, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC, a/k/a, "the fish and game department"), convinced officials in Clarkstown, NY, to kill geese two years in a row (1996-7). Despite killing all the geese in several town parks, no practical outcome was observed -- other geese just moved into to fill the void as though nothing had happened. In 1998, a town board majority broke the cycle of killing so that a pilot program could be initiated using non-lethal methods -- a combination of fencing and border collies. For the first time, the parks were virtually free of geese and complaints about them vanished. The town plans to continue this program and also consider phasing in landscaping changes to make the areas of concern less goose-friendly.
11/12/98 Rockland Lake State Park, NY - Yesterday afternoon, a 15 year old young man observed two 10-11 year-old boys beating a Canada goose with tree limbs at the north end of Rockland Lake State Park, a short distance from park headquarters. The young man dispersed the two boys and immediately turned his attention to helping the badly beaten goose. He told a friend to call her mother so that they could get the goose medical help from a local wildlife rehabilitator. In the meantime, a park police officer who was on the scene, but apparently didn't witness the beating, told the 15 year old that he would shoot the goose. The young man told the Coalition that he responded by telling the officer, "No; I must get him medical attention." The officer responded by saying, "I'll be back here in 15 minutes: if the goose is gone, we'll forget anything happened; if it's still here, I'm going to shoot it." The badly-bloodied goose died en route to the rehabilitator.
"The only comfort is knowing that this poor goose died in someone's loving arms and not on the ground."Rockland Lake State Park is adjacent to Clarkstown, NY, the town whose supervisor, with permits and encouragement from the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), and after a massive vilification campaign of geese, sent hundreds of these gentle creatures to their brutal deaths at a slaughterhouse. Ironically, no practical effect was achieved from the bloodshed, which was allegedly carried out to minimize the impact of geese in town parks. Before any geese had been killed Clarkstown, many in the community, including several town board members (who voted against the use of lethality) and local psychologists were asking, "What effect will this violent form of 'problem solving' have on our children?" This incident suggests the answer: The DEC, with the help of certain town officials, fostered an environment of hatred and violence towards these geese -- it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. A bad situation was made worse when the park police failed in their fundamental responsibility to investigate the situation. No report was filed by the officer and no effort was made to determine the identity of the two boys who fled the scene. Further, the beating and killing of this goose was a violation of Federal migratory bird laws and New York State animal cruelty laws, so the police had more than sufficient reason to take the matter seriously. The Coalition is calling on the Parks Commission to establish a procedure for their personnel in the event that anything like this happens in the future.
Not wanting this incident to be swept under the rug, the Coalition alerted the media to this needless case of brutality -- the story was covered by the local daily newspaper, the regional cable TV station, and by area radio news networks, including WCBS-AM in New York City.
10/14/98 Now you see it now you don't; the so-called "Baiting Bill" that is. Until yesterday, this bill was known as H.R. 2863. Today, rather than voting on it outright, the U.S. Senate attached it as an amendment to H.R. 2807 (An unrelated bill concerning the Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act of 1994) and sent the whole mess back to the House of Representatives for approval. This maneuver is a well-known method for getting unpopular bills through Congress by attaching them to rather benign ones. Indeed, three other amendments (once independent bills themselves) have been attached to H.R. 2807 thus far. The "baiting bill" (also known as the Migratory Bird Treaty Reform bill) is no less destructive now that it is hiding as an amendment in H.R. 2807. In fact, it is identical. Migratory birds will lose a substantial amount of protection because laws forbidding the hunting of migratory birds over bait will become almost impossible to enforce by wildlife law enforcement officials. The bill was introduced because many state game agencies, and private interests, have been illegally baiting migratory birds for years. The bill is an attempt by Rep. Don Young of Alaska to weaken laws to protect the guilty. You can tell your U.S. Senators to oppose this bill in 60 seconds right here.
09/14/98 The idea that hunting is a "war on wildlife" is pretty accurate. Of course, it's a war against an imaginary enemy. The innocent victims of such assualts are not only unaware that there is a war on, but don't have any means of defense. As with most wars, there are many casualties and many more who narrowly escape with serious wounds. Most of these wounds prove to be crippling and often life-threatening.
In many states, the carnage began last week. At a hunt site in New Jersey, hunters fired on a flock of geese, killing several. Miraculously, one managed to fly clear of the hunt area only to fall from the sky not far from where a passerby was standing. The quick-thinking individual captured the goose and took him to a veterinarian for treatment. He was hit in four places with steel shot. Three can be seen in his x-ray above. They show up on the x-ray as perfectly round white spots. The fourth broke one of his wing bones (not visible on the x-ray).
Despite his injuries, the prognosis is very good that he may recover and be able to fly again. Of course, this story is the exception, not the rule. Hunting is indeed a war: one where all the victims are innocent.
09/08/98 What Flies Around Comes Around: Game Agency Restoration Projects Causing Conflicts in Canada The enhanced population of Canada geese resulting from the game agencies' population goose restoration projects in South Dakota and other states are the subject of intense interest at Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The game agency bred molt migrants arrive in Mississauga Ontario lake front during the June waterfront festival, causing business owners additional expense. The geese were brought to South Dakota and Iowa from Minneapolis courtesy of the University of Minnesota. Or they may have been from the Michigan or Wisconsin or Kansas restoration projects. The restoration projects have resulted in conflicts between citizens at Mississauga. Unaware of the origins of the increased juvenile goose population, citizens there were led to believe that relocation or killing were the only alternatives to resolve their problem. The press release linked below concerns the deception of citizens concerned about the welfare of the geese. The broader story is that the problem originates in the US and is a problem that is created (and underwritten by US taxpayers) by US game agencies.
For more information see the press release.
09/03/98 Victory! Lake Shelbyville Goose Hunt Halted Lake Shelbyville, Illinois - To the dismay of horrified residents, the Shelbyville US Army Corp of Engineers announced plans to allow hunters onto three public beaches to kill geese - 6 hunters a day, two at each beach. Winston Campbell, head of the Local US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE), told the Coalition in a Sept. 1st phone conversation, that he had no idea what the hunt would accomplish, but he didn't have the staff to contact all 60 of the hunters to call it off. Yet, a call to the same office the day before, Monday August 31st, revealed that most of the Corps staff was "busy" administering a dove hunt. The Coalition told Mr. Campbell that more effective goose control measures should be explored before resorting to bloodshed. Thanks to quick action by David Johnson, a local resident and businessman, and members of the Coalition (see our press release), the geese of Lake Shelbyville, Illinois have won a decisive victory!! The hunt scheduled to begin Sept. 5 has been derailed. Mr. Johnson obtained a court injunction early today halting the hunt that would have turned the lake's public beaches into killing fields. After receiving the injunction, the USACE permanently canceled the hunt. The Corp was flooded with complaints from concerned citizens. |
State wildlife agencies in the Northeastern US have conspired, as they have for the past several years, to promote so-called "special" goose hunts in September and January. The publicity that accompanies this recreational bloodshed comes complete with a variety of justifications, including the need to address alleged population "problems." Conspicuous by its absence is any mention of the true motive behind these hunts, which is to provide closer-to-home hunting opportunities for their paying customers: hunters. This allows state wildlife agencies to generate more money for their coffers through the sale of hunting licenses and taxes on firearms and ammunition. In other words, state wildlife agencies are in the wildlife killing business.Copyright © 2020 Coalition to Prevent the Destruction of Canada Geese