-Tell Mayor Bloomberg to END the War on NYC Wildlife!

These four goslings are the newest residents of Prospect Park Lake. They hatched in the Brooklyn park on May 7th, despite an intrusive procedure by park officials called egg addling, which destroys eggs and traumatizes the goose parents, who aggressively protect their eggs and babies from harm.

gooslings

video & photo by Matt Ocampo

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Even though these four babies survived the odds, they are in danger of being crudely rounded up, stuffed into crates and sent to gas chambers by USDA agents any day now, along with their parents and the other geese of Prospect Park and throughout many other locations in New York City.

Parents care for babies together for prolonged periods. Their displays of emotional intelligence complement the intelligence that enables them to adapt and flourish despite the best efforts of humans to terrorize and slaughter them at every turn.

Only 23 adult Canada geese reside at the lake today. Why are city officials destroying goose eggs and using dogs to chase away the few that decided to settle there after last year’s slaughter?

Prospect Park contains 585-acres and has a 60-acre lake. Why can’t the birds live in peace?

Friends of Animals rallied at Mayor Bloomberg’s door last July, after the highly publicized gassing of 368 Canada geese and their goslings in Prospect Park. The park’s geese were rounded up by USDA agents in the dark of the early morning, to the outrage of the Brooklyn community.

That wasn’t all: 1,676 geese in city parks throughout the five boroughs were gassed last summer; 89% of the entire population of geese observed at sites throughout New York City and western Nassau County were killed.

Mayor Bloomberg claims the geese threaten air safety. (Wrong. Smithsonian scientists proved migratory geese involved in the Hudson River plane crash of 2009 were unrelated to the resident geese of New York City and western Nassau County parks being targeted.

The inconvenience of goose droppings seem to be the real reason the city wants a forced extinction of geese, judging by the bizarre level of concern over goose excrement noted in a USDA report.

New York City recently spent $27.5 million to restore wetlands. We applaud this. But policies intolerant of wildlife make no sense in this context. And why waste hundreds of thousands of dollars on a cycle of goose slaughter when the city could simply implement strategies to clean up the droppings?

We need your help to stop Mayor Bloomberg from annihilating Canada geese residing in New York City’s parks and waterways. The current slaughter contract with the USDA runs through 30 June 2011. The 23 geese and the four gosling babies in Prospect Park, and other geese throughout New York City, will face roundups during their molting phase, when they are flightless and helpless to escape.

Friends of Animals cannot accept policies that destroy eggs or use dogs to scare geese away from their nests. We maintain that geese and other urban wildlife ought to be respected and allowed to live free from our harmful intervention.

Policies that protect and respect other animals should be the norm, not something that must be demanded from our elected officials. Many people traditionally frequent city parks to enjoy the presence of animals in nature, and we hope to help Mayor Bloomberg understand this with your help.

Please Take Action to Save the Geese:

Please Contact NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and make clear your opposition to the slaughter of the geese and their babies in Prospect Park and the rest of New York City.

NYC residents: call 311 and tell the operator you want to “leave a comment for the Mayor”; then ask Mayor Bloomberg to implement polices that respect, tolerate, and promote peaceful co-existence with our urban wildlife, and to END the goose-killing contact with the USDA. Do identify yourself as a New York City resident. Your comments will be recorded compiled and sent to the Mayor.

New York City Residents can also call their NYC Council Member representative and urge them to press the Mayor to protect the Canada geese and all our urban wildlife.

Those calling from outside New York City phone 212 – NEW – YORK and follow the same directions above.

For more information or interviews write to Edita Birnkrant, NY Director of Friends of Animals by Email or call 212.247.8120
Friends of Animals’ Canada Goose Habitat Modification Manual, written by ornithologist Donald S. Heintzelman, contains practical examples of long-term landscaping policies to deter geese from urban and suburban settings where necessary. The guide has been presented to Mayor Bloomberg’s staff and other city agencies.