The City Room blog reports that nearly 400 Canada geese and goslings that were living in Prospect Park were captured and euthanized last week in an effort to reduce the goose population in the New York City region. Here’s an excpert from the City Room story:
Early on Thursday morning, wildlife biologists and technicians descended on the park and netted the birds. The biologists, who work with the wildlife services division of the United States Department of Agriculture, then packed the geese two or three to a crate and took them to a facility where they were gassed with lethal doses of carbon dioxide, said Carol A. Bannerman, a spokeswoman for the wildlife services division.
The wildlife specialists had taken advantage of the fact that the birds were in the middle of molting season, when they shed their feathers and are unable to fly. On Monday morning, only four geese were seen out on the lake in Prospect Park, according to one nearby resident, and it was not clear if they had avoided the roundup or arrived in the days since it occurred.
Last summer, 1,200 geese from 17 sites around the city were euthanized. The authorities have been trying to thin out their ranks since two geese flew into the engines of US Airways Flight 1549 in January, 2009, causing it to splash down in the Hudson River. Everyone on board survived.
i am mortified. i cannot believe that this was the most humane method –if at all necessary.
auschwitz.
Ann is 100% correct. APHIS has now created an ecological vacuum which will soon be filled by – more geese! Those birds were practically domesticated, they were completely comfortable around people. They rarely left the area around the lake, as they were fed there every day. This massacre was unnecessary, stupid and brutal.
Arrogance and stupidity–a dangerous combination. This makes one feel physically sick. Heads should roll in the Department of Agriculture.
It seems to me that the plane incident is being used to eliminate the geese because certain parks and city officials think they are a nuisance. But the killings are a useless operation. Years ago an experiment was done with Starlings in forested area. They were removed and killed several times and always other Starlings came to replace them. The irony is that these geese were almost extinct early in the 20th century. Must we as a species always get rid of what we feel gets in the way of our lifestyles? So now we have a barren lake, devoid of most wildlife. And for what? For a threat that does not really exist…these were resident birds, not migrants. What a great example for all the children who used to enjoy them. Shame on the city, Adrian Benape, Tupper Thomas, the Prospect Park Alliance and the Federal government.
I love how they went in and did this when they knew they weren’t able to fly.
This isn’t culling, they wiped out the entire population. These geese used to fly over my house each day and now the skies are silent.
holocaust