Federal agents kill 750 geese from Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge near JFK airport
CARLY BALDWIN and DANIELA BERNAL
09 July 2012
They’re back.
Agents with the U.S. Department of Agriculture removed more than 700 Canada geese from Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Monday morning, at the prodding of U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
In the hours between 7 a.m. and noon, 711 of the birds, including possibly goslings, were rounded up and put into crates, said Carol Bannerman, with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, a division within the USDA.
They were then drive to a meat processing plant in upstate New York, where the geese will be killed and their meat will be given to food banks upstate, Bannerman told Metro. In the past carbon dioxide has been used to gas the geese to death.
The more than 700 geese rounded up today comes after USDA agents removed 40 geese from a landfill near John F. Kennedy airport two weeks ago, said Bannerman. In total, 751 geese have been removed from area around JFK in the past two weeks.
That leaves only about 750 Canada geese remaining in the federally protected preserve. Before the round-up, there were 1,500 geese in the park, said Gateway National Recreation area spokesman John Warren.
According to Warren, the feds originally called for killing up to 1,000 geese in the park. But molting season ended before that many could be taken, he said.
Bannerman told Metro there will be no more further cullings planned for this summer.
But today’s surprise killing shocked and outraged many New Yorkers.
“I was sick to my stomach,” said Brooklynite David Karopkin when he heard of the killings yesterday. Karopkin, 27, runs GooseWatch NYC, which seeks to monitor and record the controversial cullings of geese in the metro area. “New Yorkers have been kept in the dark about what’s going on. These operations are done with no transparency, no public approval — for the most part we’re told after the fact.”
“It’s really a disgrace and a shock that New York City’s only wildlife and bird sanctuary has been opened up to a wildlife slaughter for no good reason,” Edita Birnkrant, the New York director of Friends of Animals, said. “I’m in utter disbelief at the stupidity of some of the people in office.”
Gillibrand has been pushing for more than three years to allow agents into the Jamaica Preserve, a 9,000-acre estuary and bird sanctuary that surrounds JFK’s runways. The birds are a hazard to planes taking off from JFK and LaGuardia airports, she and others argue.
Just this past April, a Delta jet hit geese when it took off from JFK. The cabin filled with smoke, but the plane made a safe emergency landing.
Gillibrand specifically wanted the geese culled before the end of their June and July molting phase, when the adult birds and goslings cannot fly and can be easily rounded up.
Geese-plane strikes
The USDA first started removing geese from the NYC area in July of 2004. In the five years before that, there were nine bird strikes on planes at LaGuardia, said Carol Bannerman.
In the five years after 2004, to July of 2009, there have been three bird strikes.
The most famous of which is when geese brought down the “Miracle on the Hudson” flight in January of 2009.
But according to Karopkin, the geese that brought down that flight were migrating from Canada, and did not nest in the metro area.
“So even if you killed every animal in New York City you would not have prevented that crash,” he said.
A history of cullings
Number of geese removed from around the city:
2009 1,276 geese removed and killed
2010 1,676 geese removed and killed
2011 575 geese removed and killed
2012 751 killed so far this year
Source: USDA
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13 Comments
On July 10, 2012, Cinnamon wrote:
Unfortunately, I’m not in utter disbelief regarding the stupidity of people in office. High IQ doesn’t seem to be a requisite for obtaining a position which supposedly represents the will of the people in our democratic society. And certainly, a high moral standing hasn’t proven to be the case either. Giving the murdered bodies of these geese to food banks… this generosity has been used so often, as a way to soften the blow when humans choose to kill animals, whether by sport hunting or by culling (culling: how is that different from what the Nazis did to the Jews?)—as usual, speciesism underlies atrocities regarding the killing of animals. If these geese are, indeed, gassed, it’s a horrible death, one which I and other animal activists have been fighting against at so many animal shelters (the term shelter being used advisedly, of course).
On July 10, 2012, Susan Saccaro wrote:
I think that they could have and should have relocated the geese to another place even if it were far away at least they would be free to fly.I think it is horrible what they did, it makes me so mad to think that was their solution to the problem, no one could think of something better? Whoever thought this was a great Idea will meet their maker in the end and they will be taken care of by the man upstairs…
On July 10, 2012, Roger wrote:
This government is more like the USSR and the Nazi’s everyday.
Next thing will be culling people who don’t think like they do or try to protect their rights as free citizens. Everyone should look over their shoulders.
On July 10, 2012, Nancy Yale wrote:
These people who kill animals and wildlife just because have no heart at all. These poor things are not bothering anybody; they are forced out of their natural habitat as it is, because of so called “advancement of humans”.
God created everything for all of us, I repeat all of us to enjoy their beauty not to kill them.
There has to be a way somehow that we can all get together to make the government and any one else stop anymore of this because it is disgusting.
I have helped wildlife in my area for about 10 yrs before I just watched them, but now I catch them and take fishing line or hooks from them and it their hurt I heal them back to health and then release them—I’ve even done it with swans-now for the miracle when I go there and something is wrong they protect me-I’ll give you two examples—-one, I was feeding the swan and nobody else was around, nor did I hear anyone pull into the parking lot—all of a sudden the swan went in the attack mode, I tried talking to it but it went further in the attack mode, then came out of the water full blown attack mode—I turned around and saw the most scariest guy ever—I asked if I could help him—he took one look at me, the next at the swan and said noooooo I don’t think so and back all the way up to a commuter parking lot. The swan watched until he was out of site and then came back in the water, eating out of my hand, I thanked him so much. Secondly, I was there another time and felt a funny feeling but got out and checked to see if the wildlife was alright, I put some food down and squatted down to feed the ones in the water—all of a sudden two swans came out of the water and stood up on each side of me, I turned around and about 20 Canada geese lined up behind me like soldiers just staring at this truck—we were the only two there. They would not move until the truck pulled away that’s when everything went back to normal.
By the way, a week after the swan saved me life I saw a salt water fishing hook in his leg despite this being a fresh water lake. I told him he had to come on shore so I could take it out and he did—he gave me his leg when I asked him to, and turned when I told him to so that I could get the other end out which I did, after he just laid there for me to pet him, hug and kiss him——-I wish someone was there to take a picture of this but I wouldn’t tell you if it wasn’t—it was—he stayed for about 15 min until I told him, he should go back in the water and thanked him for letting me help him and kissed and hugged him again. Then he got up and went back in the water.
When we have wildlife like this for protection they are better than some people and detect danger before we do—why would anyone kill them is way beyond my comprehension besides greed, that’s all I can come up with.
I pray to God every single day to please stop this as people are destroying what he created for us to enjoy before everything is killed, but again as I said before there has to be something we can do now before its to late as I’m sure god will be right there with us helping. Have any suggestions please let me know. Thanks, God bless you all and all of god’s creations to continue on living a peaceful life!
On July 10, 2012, Cinnamon wrote:
To Nancy Yale - Thank you for the beautiful and heartfelt story you shared with us. I was also in Wildlife Rescue, in Austin, TX, for 3 years, before I began rescuing domestics, primarily cats but also several dogs.
I’ll add my prayers to yours, wishing that God would intervene in the human destruction of our world. Every act of kindness we add to the mix (as in the Starfish story), does make a difference for the individual animals we help. I know it’s frustrating that we can’t do even more, knowing there’s so much more that needs to be done.
But the numbers of us whose consciousness has evolved, who know the difference between good and evil—those numbers are growing. Hopefully our planet will survive long enough for the animals finally to reap their deserved reward of safety and a gentle existence, free of the fear and suffering caused by the unworthy beings who share the name “humans” with us.
On July 10, 2012, Theresa Gargiulo wrote:
How is it that “Jamaica Bay Wildlife REFUGE”, a federally protected preserve,is open to the MURDER of these innocent creatures? According to Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, the definition of REFUGE is: shelter or protection from danger, distress…it is a sanctuary, a place where one is safe or protected. Since Senator Gillibrand is so determined that these geese be culled, maybe she could participate in the actual killing for a photo op on the cover of The Daily News !!! I guess her “education” never afforded her the definition of “Refuge”. I hope that Friends of Animals forwards all of these comments to her.
On July 11, 2012, jeffrey kramer wrote:
I have been with GooseWatchNYC guarding a target park by the USDA—my first experience in some hands-on activism. Our job as a goosewatcher is to document the roundups so that the people of NYC are made aware of these crimes against wildlife-funded in large part with our taxpayer monies. What I have always known before GooseWatch is the great conflict being played out everyday between civilization and nature—our inability to understand that we have a moral obligation to all creation,that ALL LIFE is consequential, and most important, civilization must accommodate the natural order, for the natural order is unable to accommodate civilization. What I have learned in just the last 4 weeks with GooseWatch is that-like all social movements-action must be taken and relentlessly pursued if we are to have a chance of disseminating throughout our “civilization” of what Albert Schweitzer called Reverence for Life. Just working with the people of GooseWatch who also share this ethic-they are like me!-and reading this blog, helps somewhat the pain and depression of thinking about those 751 geese families sent to their horrible deaths. Many days I watched the goslings follow mama, with papa behind, learn to walk the Refuge Trail. My opinion of man cannot sink much lower.
On July 12, 2012, Judy Boone wrote:
Murderers !There was no reason to use murder to solve a problem if the government can send $$$ to countries that hate the US why cant the government spend some on saving animals geese whatever rather than resorting to MURDER?
On July 12, 2012, Andrea wrote:
This is absolutely repulsive. Those poor geese and the fact that there is no transparency and apparently no room for dissent (if the public is being informed after the fact)makes this situation very dangerous in that you have to start asking yourself what creature is going to be next. Every creature contributes in their own way to the ecosystem. Very unnerving, like the situation with crows in upstate New York.
On July 13, 2012, MARY PAT CHARLES wrote:
Why is the federal government allowed to destroy anything regarding wildlife without so much as the slightest penalty for destroying property and living creatures that belong to the American people not the government? Their arrogance is unconscionable. Anyone who participates in this useless destruction should be bounced out of their government position no matter what. All names should be publicized.
On July 14, 2012, Gayle wrote:
well they do it to the wild horses, and anything else that gets in the way— and by the way— FEDERAL AGENTS ?? how much PER HOUR do they get paid to do this? can they _(*($)#($ away more money murdering animals?
whats next? maybe the pitbulls now? the next dog breed they deem a problem? since Obama took office, NOTHING is safe , including US. oh but they can allow how many millions of ILLEGAL aliens to come dancing over. it won’t be enough until they make it a desert — nothing alive except what they can make money FROM.
On July 14, 2012, DMan wrote:
I can’t understand how someone who attended an Ivy League college can be so cruel! Since they are doing what they said, FOA should look for different tactics to stop it! Susan S is right, they will pay for this someday!
On July 14, 2012, amy bratt wrote:
No excuse for these geese murders