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Mississuaga Goose Relocation is a Goose Kill 9/8/98
Contacts: The June relocation of 1,300 geese at Mississauga, Ontario, has been revealed to be a planned slaughter. When citizens protested the government sponsored kill of Canada geese on their lake shore, the Mississauga City Council made concessions, as they had done one year earlier, and agreed to relocate the molt migrants. Citizens understood that the geese would be moved to where they would not bother the lakefront business owners. The results of the July investigation by Carroll Cox, EnviroWatch, Inc were made public today by the Coalition to Protect Canada Geese and Friends of the Ducks and Geese. The investigation reveals that the government understood even when they agreed to relocation that they were still sending the birds to their deaths. The June 22-23, 1998, "relocation" removed a portion of the birds to the Long Point Regional Conservation Authority Hunting Lodge, where they are currently being fed under permit by the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) to retain them there until the hunting season. Cox also found that the LPRCA Hunting Lodge uses live decoys to attract other birds during the hunting season, in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty. The government also intended to send the remaining geese to their deaths, but bureaucratic bungling prevented that. CWS told the opponents that the geese were to be used for food and in ceremonials at Grassy Narrows. Chief Bill Fobister, Resource Chair Steve Fobister, the Band Council and elders of the Grassy Narrows First Nation told Cox that they do not have a practice of hunting geese, nor do they use them in ceremonials. Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) had cautioned CWS against the shipment of geese to the McIntosh School location as there wasn't enough food. Against the DUC recommendation, CWS dumped the geese at the McIntosh School (not the First Nation reservation) where CWS immediately issued shoot-to-kill permits when citizens at Canyon Lake complained of geese on their lawns and gardens. The government fraudulently claimed, in seeking support for a slaughter of the geese, that the geese at the lakefront were a health hazard. Residents of Canyon Lake consequently worried that the geese would contaminate their own lakes which serve as their water supply. There had been no consultation with the residents there prior to the shipment of the geese. The real health hazard is eating the geese. Welfare Canada is reported to have telephoned the First Nation and cautioned residents not to eat the geese because they were contaminated with mercury and lead. The residents of Canyon Lake were apparently not notified about the toxic hazard from eating the geese. Some residents were reported to have killed and smoked the geese. The City and CWS have consistently used the Freedom of Information Act to discourage inquiries about the facts of the case. Citizens are demanding to have a full and complete account of the deaths during shipment. The government first reported that 11 geese died in the move to the hunting lodge. Then when the EnviroWatch investigation began, the number jumped to 27 deaths without explanation. There have been questions about the number of deaths following the torturous move to the hunting lodge location. The number of geese shipped to McIntosh School does not tally with the number which arrived there and the number of hours in transport has been misrepresented by CWS to the public. Citizens are asking to halt all hunting at the LPRCA Hunting Lodge, withdrawal of the CWS feed permits so the geese will continue their migration, freedom for the ducks who are being used as live decoys, and prosecution of the hunting lodge for likely violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty. In addition, the Coalition to Protect Canada Geese is urging the Canadian municipalities to sue the US Department of Interior to halt the Canada goose restoration projects which are causing the increase in the molt migrant population. Local efforts to replace the desirable grass with grass less palatable would dissuade geese from remaining at the lakefront. The disastrous roundup and trucking of the geese to Long Point Hunting Lodge has been documented on videotape and personal observation and reported elsewhere.
A Case of Mistaken Agency Identity? US Army Corp of Engineers to Close Public Areas of Lake Shelbyville to Kill Tame Geese. 9/2/98
Contacts: Lake Shelbyville, IL - It appears that the US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) stationed at Lake Shelbyville have forgotten that they are a branch of the US Army and not a wildlife agency. The head of the Shelbyville Corps, Winston Campbell, told the Coalition today that the controversial Canada goose killing set to take place on the lake's three public beaches Sept. 5th - 15th is the work of the Army Corp alone. By declaring war on these peaceful creatures, the USACE gives credibility to stereotypes that portray the military as eager to solve problems using weaponry rather than more peaceful and effective means. The Coalition was told that the issue was one of goose droppings on the beaches -- a situation easily remedied without bloodshed. Indeed, Campbell was surprised to learn from the Coalition that the US Army Pest Management Board recommends the use of trained border collies to resolve conflicts with geese. Shooting geese has been shown to have a negligible practical effect. Other geese from surrounding areas just move into the vacated areas. In the northeastern US, these hunts have been carried out since 1994, and despite having steady increases since then in the hunts' duration, area covered, and bag limits, no practical effect has been observed. Several state game agencies and the US Fish and Wildlife Service have recently conceded this point. It appears that the Corp did not do its homework. Further, Lake Shelbyville is surrounded, in part, by FIVE state-run Waterfowl Management Areas where, according to Illinois DNR documents, conditions are manipulated to increase the populations of waterbirds, including geese. So, considering past failures of this deadly approach, and with nearby efforts to increase the goose population operating at full steam, there appears to be no logical explanation behind denying public access to beach areas so that a "select few" gun-toting rambos can blast away at geese that have developed a trust with their human neighbors. When told that the Coalition would be happy to work with the Corp to resolve the alleged "problem" of geese on the beach using proven non-lethal methods of control, we were told that the hunt couldn't be stopped because of a lack of personnel. Yet on Tues., Sept. 2, a woman at the Corp office said that the wildlife staff could not be reached because they were out administering a dove hunt!! --Which brings us back to the original question: Does the US Army Corp of Engineers at Shelbyville have an identity crisis? The Coalition thinks it's time that the Corp be reminded that the federal tax dollars that constitute its operating budget were not intended to initiate needless and misguided wars on wildlife. The Coalition is contemplating, among other things, initiating a country-wide boycott of Lake Shelbyville's tourist attractions.
If at first you don't succeed, BLUFF! 8/13/98
Contacts: Councilwoman Glenski calls on military to fight her war on wildlife: Justification for banning waterfowl feeding is pure fear-mongering. Sioux Falls - After a failed attempt by Councilwoman Glenski to ban the feeding of waterfowl at Covell Lake about a year ago, she's on the warpath again, this time enlisting the services of the military, the SD Air National Guard (ANG). After rightly voting down an attempt by Ms. Glenski to codify her personal dislike for geese and contempt for those citizens who enjoy them, the City Council is now confronted with the false notion that feeding geese and ducks at Covell Lake is a risk to air traffic safety. Concerned Sioux Falls citizens and the Coalition, a wildlife protection organization, insist that Glenski's sudden interest in air traffic safety is pure political mischief -- an attempt to scare sensible council members and the public into acting out of unfounded fear instead of logic. Air National Guard Arguments Just Don't "Fly." In a letter dated June 25, 1998, to Council members, Col. Thomas Lien of the SD Air National Guard said that the problem was that, "...geese fly from Covell Lake to grain fields west and north of the airport to feed." This means that geese at Covell lake are hungry and are flying elsewhere to eat. If anything, logic dictates that there should be more feeding at Covell Lake, not less, to keep the geese from flying over the airfield in search of food. Banning feeding could be expected to increase Canada goose traffic around the airfield -- not decrease it! The idea that people feeding geese increases regional populations is a widespread MYTH. Geese choose areas to pursue their activities based on the suitability of available habitat. In a recent editorial, Lt. Col. Anderson, SD ANG did what everyone does who has a flimsy case: speak in generalities and use fear to advance the agenda. He refers to generic "bird strikes" not "goose strikes," and to pelicans and one freak accident involving geese in Alaska (a tragic, yet completely different situation than Sioux Falls, since geese were actually present at the airfield). Remarkably, NO RELEVANT DATA from Joe Foss Field was presented -- because there isn't any! (See the attached 2 page FOIA request.) Ironically, the issue of air safety wasn't so much as a murmur the last time the ban came up for a vote a mere year ago. Where is the data to show how bad things have gotten over the past year? Talk about suspicious urgency! In light of past motives, the assertions of Glenski and her ANG cohorts just aren't believable. If they were honest in their intent, and sincerely interested in air safety, they would have done their homework and found that their concerns are misdirected. Instead of blaming those who enjoy the geese and ducks, they should have been investigating the fact that thousands of geese continue to be relocated to SD from MN each year. The blame and liability for whatever risks are believed to exist, lie first and foremost with the SD Game, Fish and Parks Department, not on little old ladies in tennis shoes feeding geese at Covell Lake. But this isn't about air traffic safety and it never was. Pursuing a frivolous ordinance is bad enough, but using scare tactics to take advantage of people's sense of responsibility and concern for safety is unacceptable. There's a big difference between those who oppose the ban on feeding and those who are pushing for it. Those against the feeding ban care about the geese and would never want them killed in a collision with an aircraft. This position, it turns out, is the very same one that benefits humans and aircraft, too.
Connecticut's September Canada Goose Hunt a Scam! 8/6/98 CT DEP will say just about anything to boost their sagging hunting business: Anything except the TRUTH!
Contacts: While the CT State DEP's Division of Wildlife takes aim at Canada geese in a hunt starting Sept. 1-4 and 8-25, concerned citizens and the Coalition, a wildlife protection organization, will be taking aim at Division of Wildlife's self-serving kill-fest. They SAY that the hunt is necessary to control the goose population and resolve problems that some people feel geese are causing in certain areas. The truth is: Other states have proven that hunting is completely ineffective at resolving goose-human conflicts -- nor does hunting have any practical impact on regional goose populations. The truth is: DEP is using the illusion of necessity and public service to hide their real motive: to bring more money into their coffers by selling more hunting licenses -- economic desperation and deception are working hand in hand. They SAY that geese must be killed because they pose a threat to public health and water quality. The truth is: Scientific studies (e.g., those done at Boston University/Harvard Medical School) have shown that goose droppings do not contain bacteria that cause illness in humans. Their feeble strategy is little more than a classic scare tactic. The Division of Wildlife has NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE to support their claims that geese are anything other than an ordinary nuisance to a few people in a few places. In fact, if geese are a problem, the blame rests squarely with the DEP, who for years have been managing goose populations so that they increase to provide living targets for the agency's paying customers ("sport" hunters). Hunting is clearly the problem -- not the solution. Playing on the myth that killing is an effective way to control wildlife, the DEP sits poised to launch a needless war on our gentle Canada geese neighbors. Suspiciously, they aren't concerned about the threat that the hunt will pose to public safety. Why put the majority of citizens at risk? In September, people will still be enjoying the outdoors, and children will be heading back to school. The DEP's Division of Wildlife hopes that with enough justifications, no matter how illogical, the public won't notice that all they're really doing is catering to a tiny minority who are willing to pay to kill and cripple wildlife -- for fun. And because more hunting means more money, the DEP is ca$hing in. That's why they don't tell us the truth!
Birdnappers Caught in the Act! 7/10/98
Contact: Department of Fish and Game abducts geese and swans from Sylvan Lake. Outraged Residents Want Birds Returned! Monmouth County - Early Tuesday morning angry residents of Lake Sylvan descended on 5 Fish and Game department trucks that had penetrated private property to capture all 60-70 of the lake's waterbirds, including geese, and swans. One homeowner told the state-sanctioned trespassers, "Get off my property ... leave our birds alone!" Quick-acting citizens made phone calls to the NJ Fish and Game - only to find that there were more contradictory explanations about the bird-snatching than birds. Eyewitnesses saw the birds taken off-site after being herded onto trucks. Paul Castelli, DEP, told State Senator Palaia that the birds were banded on-site then released. Later, Castelli told the Senator that the birds were taken off-site to be banded and would be returned on Friday (July 10th). At around the same time, the Coalition was told by one Bradley Beach PW employee involved that the birds were relocated to Hurley Pond. Another told us that they were going to the AT&T; Corporate Park - a nonsensical statement, since this location is known to complain about geese. One thing is certain: Fish and Game was up to something they knew the public wouldn't like, but neglected to get their story straight beforehand. These are the antics of an agency so arrogant it feels it doesn't have worry about explaining itself. Despite claims by Castelli that the birds would be returned, concerned residents say more than half the birds are still missing. Those that were released consist of a family of goslings whose parents are nowhere to be found. Indeed, many of the swans are missing, and there are very few adult geese anywhere. The Coalition will assume that the unaccounted-for have been killed until the DEP can prove otherwise. There is good reason to believe that the removal of these birds was done without a proper federal permit! In any case, we demand a full explanation and documentation for this debacle (see the Right-to-Know Law request). One of the birdnappers, when confronted by a lake-side resident, defiantly remarked, "The birds belong to the State and we have a right to come on to your property to get them." Actually, the birds, the State, and the DEP belong to the citizens -isn't it time someone told the DEP?
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