p style=”font-size: 11px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px; font-family: ‘Lucida Grande’, ‘Lucida Sans Unicode’, verdana, geneva, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);”nbsp;/pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”bThursday, May 23, 2pm – 4pm, North Hempstead Town Hall/b./pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”strongWhen:/strongnbsp;Thursday, May 23, 2013, 2pm-4pmbr /strongWhere:/strongnbsp;In front of North Hempstead Town Hall, 220 Plandome Road, Manhasset, NY 11030br /(The Manhasset stop of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) stops one block away from the Town Hall)/pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”img alt=”” class=”no_caption_left” src=”/sites/default/files/canadagoose_2.jpg” style=”line-height: 1.6em; width: 324px; height: 216px; float: left;” //pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”span style=”line-height: 1.6em;”Your attendance is crucially needed on Thursday, May 23rd, 2pm-4pm to send a convincing message to North Hempstead, Long Island officials and media slaughtering the townrsquo;s Canada geese in area parks in the coming weeks will not be tolerated. We will gather in front of North Hempstead Town Hall Thursday to press officials to officially cancel any goose-killing scheme. Wersquo;ll bring posters, but please bring your own if possible. Last Tuesdayrsquo;s packed North Hampstead Town Council Board Meeting, in which Friends of Animals and dozens of town residents attended and spoke against a plan to gas hundreds of the townrsquo;s geese to death in parks, caused a stirmdash;and was covered by Newsday, News 12 TV and other local media./span/pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”Supervisor Jon Kaiman and Council Members listed for 90 minutes as passionate speakers voiced outrage over hiring thenbsp;span class=”caps”USDAnbsp;/spanto roundup and exterminate geese and their newly born goslings in area parks, starting in June by stuffing them into crates and sending them to gas chambersmdash;costing the town nearly $10,000 in tax dollars. Friends of Animals and others have attempted to set up a follow-up meeting with officials, but no response has followed from any officials. Time is running out to save the geese./pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”Friends of Animals and others offered humane, effective alternatives, such as modifying park habitat and landscapes to deter geese from nesting and gathering in high-use areas of parks, as detailed in FoArsquo;s Canada Goose Habitat Modification Manual, which was distributed to each official at the meeting. We also advised officials to make it a policy to clean up waste matter instead of saying all geese within town limits must die. Posting signs and enforcing no-feeding and littering rules are also sensible steps. Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman and Council Members need a different mindset, one that evolves beyond ignorance and intolerance. Many North Hempstead residents in attendance spoke about how much they value and cherish visiting parks and observing families of geese living their lives. They were horrified at the thought of a goose extermination scheme.br /br /North Hempstead Parks and Recreation officials complain that goose droppings are a nuisancemdash;yet there is no mention of the town using equipment which quickly and effectively remove goose droppings from grassy areas and parks. How can this be ignored?/pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”The town claims theyrsquo;ve tried everything to ldquo;scare offrdquo; the geese, and that nothing worked.rdquo; Predictibly, harassing geese from areas wonrsquo;t work if flat, grassy areas remain unchanged. Geese will move in when others leave, occupying those areas for nesting, especially in the summer./pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”Habitat and landscape modifications are environmentally sound, long-term ways to deter geese from areas where they are seen as problematic mdash; clearly whatrsquo;s needed in North Hempstead. Co-existence with geese and other wildlife is required as sensible, suburban living. Are Supervisor Jon Kaimin and Town Council Members prepared to spend the residentsrsquo; taxes each year to kill geese instead of implementing the effective strategies Friends of Animals endorses?/pdiv id=”a001242more”div id=”more”p style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”Geese are attracted to areas with short, mowed grass and open sight lines as safe nesting areas. Growing grass longer in areas, planting native shrubs and trees to block sight lines (geese like to watch for predators), will deter geese from ponds, shores and parkland mdash; reducing the time they spend in any one spot mdash; especially for the 6 week period in summer when theyrsquo;re molting./pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”The towns of Mamaroneck and Scarsdale, in Westchester, NY recently cancelled plans to kill Canada geese in parks after feedback and meetings from Friends of Animals and other agitated residents opposed to the killing. North Hempstead can and should do the same./pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”bFor more details or information, contact Edita Birnkrant, NY Director, Friends of Animals bynbsp;a href=”mailto:edita@friendsofanimals.org” style=”text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 126, 174);”span class=”caps”EMAIL/span/anbsp;or 212.247.8120/b/pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”If you canrsquo;t attend the demonstration on Thursday, please continue to call and email Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman and Town Council members and tell them to cancel the mean-spirited plan to slaughter Canada geese. Remind them that goose roundups are monstrousmdash;USDA agents typically enter park areas during early morning, roughly separating goslings from parents, and then stuff the bound, panicked geese and babies into crates. Next, the geese are gassed or shot to death. Ask North Hempstead officials if they imagine such immorality is preferable to cleaning the grass and modifying some habitat and landscapes./pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”strongContact Information:/strongbr /br /Office – Contact – Phone – Email/pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”Supervisor Hon. Jon Kaiman mdash; 516.869.6311 andnbsp;a href=”mailto:kaimanj@northhempsteadny.gov” style=”text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 126, 174);”kaimanj@northhempsteadny.gov/a/pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”Town Clerk Hon. Leslie Gross mdash; 516.869.6311 andnbsp;a href=”mailto:grossl@northhempsteadny.gov” style=”text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 126, 174);”grossl@northhempsteadny.gov/abr /br /Town Boardnbsp;br /Councilperson District 1 Hon. Viviana L. Russell mdash; 516.869.7701 anda href=”mailto:russellv@northhempsteadny.gov” style=”text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 126, 174);”russellv@northhempsteadny.gov/a/pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”Town Boardnbsp;br /Councilperson District 2 Hon. Thomas K. Dwyer mdash; 516.869.7702 anda href=”mailto:dwyert@northhempsteadny.gov” style=”text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 126, 174);”dwyert@northhempsteadny.gov/a/pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”Town Boardnbsp;br /Councilperson District 3 Hon. Angelo P. Ferrara mdash; 516.869.7703 anda href=”mailto:ferraraa@northhempsteadny.gov” style=”text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 126, 174);”ferraraa@northhempsteadny.gov/a/pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”Town Boardnbsp;br /Councilperson District 4 Hon. Anna M. Kaplan mdash; 516.869.7704 anda href=”mailto:kaplana@northhempsteadny.gov” style=”text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 126, 174);”kaplana@northhempsteadny.gov/a/pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”Town Boardnbsp;br /Councilperson District 5 Hon. Lee Seeman mdash; 516.869-7705 anda href=”mailto:seemanl@northhempsteadny.gov” style=”text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 126, 174);”seemanl@northhempsteadny.gov/a/pp style=”line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px;”Town Boardnbsp;br /Councilperson District 6 Hon. Dina M. DeGiorgio mdash; 516.869.7706 anda href=”mailto:degiorgiod@northhempsteadny.gov” style=”text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 126, 174);”degiorgiod@northhempsteadny.gov/a/pdivnbsp;/div/div/divpnbsp;/p