Brooklyn geese gassed for air travel safety

Prospect Park's pack of 400 Canada geese was rounded up and gassed to prevent collisions with airplanes and other potential problems.

By

Stephanie Rogers

Tue, Jul 13 2010 at 8:56 PM

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Pets, Air Travel, Wild Animals

Photo: bobjudge/Flickr

When a pack of geese nearly caused a tragedy for US Airways Flight 1549 in January 2009, pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger managed a miraculous landing and saved all 155 passengers and crew members on board. But next time, things may not go so smoothly — which is why the federal Agriculture Department decided to round up and kill 400 of Brooklyn's beloved Prospect Park geese, as reported by The New York Times.

The problem, according to some local residents? The Canada geese that caused the accident were migratory birds from outside the region. Prospect Park's Canada geese were a native pack that most likely lived in the area year-round, and were therefore unlikely to pose safety issues in the air.

Dr. Paul Curtis, an associate professor of wildlife sciences at Cornell University, explains that the two types of Canada geese are nearly indistinguishable, even to biologists.

But many park visitors question why the geese had to die. The geese were herded into a fenced area in the park by wildlife biologists and technicians, packed into crates and taken to a nearby building where they were gassed with lethal doses of carbon dioxide. The carcasses were bagged and dumped in a landfill.

Four geese were spotted in the lake over the weekend, but the Agriculture Department hasn't yet finished its schedule of round-ups.

New York has no relocation program for nuisance birds, according to an Agriculture Department spokeswoman. In other states, like Pennsylvania, euthanized geese have been donated for food.

“It’s a horrible end,” Brooklyn resident Anne-Katrin Titze, who fed the geese every morning, told The New York Times. “It’s eerie to see a whole population gone.”

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Comment: 1

George Meredith MD Jun 23 2012 at 11:57 PM

The USDA Canada Goose Exterminations: Flashback to Nazi Germany’s Death Camps Of all the revolting films that I have ever seen would be those of Hitler’s SS Storm Troopers rounding up Jews, Gypsies and other “undesirables”, herding them, along with their children onto cattle cars, with inadequate facilities, transporting for days on end in these unsanitary conditions. And then at the end of their long tortuous trip, herding these poor people, with their crying offspring, into waiting gas

.... More

chambers. These unfortunates never had a chance! And today, all over the continental United States, this same sick drama is being played out by the USDA’s SS Troopers. Only the target species this time are not the Jews and Gypsies, but instead the noble Canada Goose along and its half grown, flightless goslings. What a cruel spectacle, the totally devoted Canada Goose parents, which will not leave their goslings, being herded into similarly unsanitary (turkey) crates, with barely enough room for them to breathe. And then the long, tortured journey to the gas chambers. With subsequent cremation just as in Hitler’s death camps. The sad part of this picture is being played in Virginia Beach, Virginia ...where this revolting practice is going on as I speak. In Virginia Beach, I and other wing shooters have unsuccessfully lobbied, for years now, to open the season on Canadas. As has been done in a number of progressive North American municipalities. This way, man the predator, can, in his ancient tradition, along with his middle school and high school children and their gun dogs, preserve an ancient heritage. While simultaneously managing Canada Goose populations. Birds that have been allowed to grow to adulthood. While utilizing almost all parts of the Goose at the table and in the field. While simultaneously modifying the behavior of these magnificent birds! Surely we can be a better people than Hitler and his SS Storm Troopers! George Meredith MD Virginia Beach, Virginia

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