Officials Euthanize Nearly 400 Geese From Prospect Park

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/officials-euthanize-nearly-400-geese-from-prospect-park/?hp

July 12, 2010, 3:29 PM
Officials Euthanize Nearly 400 Geese From Prospect Park
By ISOLDE RAFTERY

Nearly 400 Canada geese and goslings that had been living at Prospect Park were captured and euthanized last week as part of an ongoing citywide effort to reduce the goose population in the New York City region.

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.

The absence of the birds was noticed by park enthusiasts and landscapers, though officials at Prospect Park were not notified of their removal. Two of the park’s birds gained some notoriety because of their disabilities – one was missing the top part of its beak, and another had a crossbow speared through its neck.

The Prospect Park geese were not the only ones removed in the last month. The goal is to remove all geese within seven miles of La Guardia and John F. Kennedy airports.

Rest in Peace?

Why can't they do this to pigeons. Poor geese, DISLIKE!

As someone who grew up on the South Shore of Long Island with geese and swans frequently in their backyard, I consider geese more of a nuisance than pigeons. They are walking, flying and floating crap machines with a pissy attitude. Good riddance.

what a waste! they could of hunted and gutted and feed hungry people!

Frankly.. I can't form an opinion. Don't want to see any creature killed but perhaps necessary?Perhaps someone who knows or does the research can put this in perspective for me and other.

I'm with the NY Post on this one:

http://bit.ly/aC1TZj

They should have had a giant goose BBQ! Otherwise this is just a waste of food.

Yes, prospect park goose bbq...the ultimate in locavore dining! Plus, they could make goose down pillows for everyone to sit on.

Fucking reprehensible. Those geese had as much right to live as any of you. We used to feed that goose with the missing beak.

How do you feel about cockroaches? Bedbugs? If your home were infested, would you still feel that they had "as much right to live"?

If there were brown bears or cougars in Prospect Park, would you respect their "right to live" in the park?

The fact is that geese near airports or landing or takeoff corridors represent a significant threat to airliners, and thus to human life.

If it's them or us, most of us will choose "us".

I'm not sure I'd want to eat a goose that had potentially taken a dip in the gowanus, sadly, but it seems to be such a shame that they couldn't recycle all that meat when there are hungry people! Seriously, 400 geese could have easily fed like 1,000 people dinner!! Why don't these people coordinate with soup kitchens or something? or maybe our epically mismanaged MTA could have taken them as a budget offering or something.....just sayin.....

They've got bombs that can wipe out entire cities, and atomic submarines that can remain submerged for months at a time. How is it that they can't design an airplane to withstand a collision with a flock of fucking geese?

Meanwhile, if this moronic fucking country had a decent rail system, the air traffic could be trimmed way back, and we wouldn't have to listen to the incessant whining about how air travel sucks.

problem with any new rail or air ports etc.. is too many nimby's in this country.

"incessant whining"?

Right here in river city!

btw the geese in the parks don't migrate and cause the air problems that they are doing it for.

armchair_warrior wrote: btw the geese in the parks don't migrate and cause the air problems that they are doing it for.

^ this is incorrect.

Danny Hellman wrote: They've got bombs that can wipe out entire cities, and atomic submarines that can remain submerged for months at a time. How is it that they can't design an airplane to withstand a collision with a flock of fucking geese?

You're right, you should get on that. I bet the aerospace engineers that design jet engines have never thought of it.

There are now at least two "sub-species" of Canada geese, those that migrate & those that don't. (They are not true sub-species as their basic difference is behavioral not genetic.) The Prospect Park geese include some of both types. For years the resident swans kept down the number of geese sticking around, but even the territorial swans couldn't keep up with the hoards.

"this moronic fucking country" as Danny Hellman so elegantly put it is also bound by the Migratory Species Act which tightly regulates when such species can be hunted. And since some of this particular species migrates to and from Canada each year local agencies can't just re-write the legislation to suit themselves. Sure, it would be good to ammend the law to cover current behavioral patterns, but I think that is probably low on the list of government priorities at the moment. But hey, you never know!

Carnivore wrote: [quote=Danny Hellman]They've got bombs that can wipe out entire cities, and atomic submarines that can remain submerged for months at a time. How is it that they can't design an airplane to withstand a collision with a flock of fucking geese?

You're right, you should get on that. I bet the aerospace engineers that design jet engines have never thought of it.

Naw, what they should do is make the whole plane out of the indestructable material that the black box is made out of! Check and mate!

I blame Sully.

Drano wrote: [quote=Carnivore][quote=Danny Hellman]They've got bombs that can wipe out entire cities, and atomic submarines that can remain submerged for months at a time. How is it that they can't design an airplane to withstand a collision with a flock of fucking geese?

You're right, you should get on that. I bet the aerospace engineers that design jet engines have never thought of it.

Naw, what they should do is make the whole plane out of the indestructable material that the black box is made out of! Check and mate!

As we have recently established on the CH Tree Breaker thread, one is also able to keep harm at bay if one is a "big group of big guys hanging out barbequeing".

Let's just make the entire world indestrucible, that way we'll all be safe. We'll just have a bunch of guys hang out and BBQ near every tree in the city!

....this is an excellent plan.

I hear planes mades of 3" thick titanium are really light and affordable.

I'm pretty sure the meat from Canadian geese tastes horrible. I think hunters will shoot them just to get rid of a pest and leave the carcass for coyotes and vultures.

And by pest, I mean that they move into new territory and outcompete the smaller, native waterfowl for real-estate, throwing local ecosystems out of whack.

Carnivore wrote:
You're right, you should get on that. I bet the aerospace engineers that design jet engines have never thought of it.

If the safety of air travel depends on zeroing out the goose population, I'd venture to say that aerospace engineers haven't figured the whole thing out quite as well as they ought.

Yeah I don't think these geese would taste very good and would likely make one sick. They are nasty birds, shit everywhere. And they always sound like they're mocking me - hahahaha you have trouble up that one hill on the loop hahahahaha etc. I just hope they didn't leave the bodies lying around for the racoons.

I've had goose. So yummy. But from southern Delaware where it's as rural as can be. I wouldn't eat a city goose. You just don't know what they've been eating.

I bet I could eat 100 geese...

Context

Carnivore wrote: I bet I could eat 100 geese...

The USDA should've hired you to visit the PP geese and bite all their little heads off.

What a rotten thing to do.

Here's a longer article with a little more context:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/nyregion/13geese.html?_r=2

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/editorial_fed_geese_slaughter_was_5AEChbteNtmcyaNOcgTAUP?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME

We're going to run through those lousy hun bastards like crap through a goose!