Wisconsin ADC Ready for Canada Goose Kill

Contact: Dr. Ann Frisch, Coalition to Protect Canada Geese
Cell phone: (808) 386-7772

Wisconsin -- "Get the goose poop off the lawn" was the request by the Coalition to Protect Canada Geese to the USDA Animal Damage Control that is preparing an Environmental Impact Statement. Charging that the Wisconsin DNR and USDA Animal Damage Control do not care about citizen concern for goose poop and air traffic safety, the Coalition to Protect Canada Geese sent draft comments for inclusion in the USDA Animal Damage Control (USDA/APHIS Wildlife Services) Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

Nation-wide efforts to increase game agency and ADC revenues are being promoted at the expense of citizens who must pay the bill and not get the promised results: elimination of goose poop from their property, golf courses and parks and reduction of the alleged risk from geese at airports. Frisch said that studies do not show that either concern will be alleviated by the current game agency  population control  efforts.

"What happens with 'population control' is that the hunting seasons may be the cause of the flight of geese from rural areas to urban parks and ponds. The game agencies and ADC promote them as the solution. Removal of geese from one site by artificial measures such as capture and relocation and capture and kill will only make space available for others. It will move geese from locations where they are wanted to locations where they are not wanted" Frisch said.

(Under an antiquated federal law, game agencies must pay their staff from hunting license revenues. Each additional hunter brings in more federal taxes (on firearms including Saturday night specials) go to state game agencies on the basis of land area and number of hunters. The specific taxes are to grow geese, deer and other animals to be targets for hunters. Game agencies are very worried about the decline in hunting, hence are promoting the close-to-home hunts.)

After a decade of research in Minnesota by University of Minnesota James Cooper (to whom the DNR and ADC are looking to for leadership) there is no proof that the present hunting and capture/kill/ relocate measures actually reduce the goose poop on the parks and golf courses. In fact, all the game agencies can say is in essence is: we killed 2,000 geese so there must be 2,000 geese less than there were before. That does not address citizen's concerns about specific areas.

Frisch asked Animal Damage Control for site-specific studies to be developed in the EIS to show that they can identify the sources of the problem for each area and be effective in efforts to reduce the goose poop and any proven risk to air passengers and cargo. Since citizens as individuals and through government agencies have to pay the bill, they want results.

The WAEN and its' project Coalition to Protect Canada Geese sent copies of its Wisconsin EIS draft comments to Milwaukee County Executive Thomas Ament Milwaukee County Executive and Karen M. Ordinans Chair, Milwaukee Co. Board of Supervisors as well as Mayor John Norquist. Two other potential goose kill governmental units were also notified: Winnebago County, Racine County and Cedarburg.

Frisch is President of the Wisconsin Animal Educational Network and National Coordinator for the Coalition to Protect Canada Geese. The Coalition web site gives evidence of some successful efforts at keeping geese off lawns and parks with non-lethal control.