NY's annual geese slaughter sees fewest birds ever

Edited on June 29, 2012 1:30 EDT

(CBS News) Good news for frequent flyers (and very bad news if you happen to be a goose): New York's annual goose roundup is underway. Since 2009, the government has undertaken these roundups in an attempt to cull the Canadian goose population around the New York City area and reduce the risk of the birds inadvertently affecting air travel. The initiative seems to be a success, with government officials reporting the lowest total of geese killed this summer of any year since the roundups started.

The New York Times reports that since the round-ups began on Monday, goose collectors from the federal Department of Agriculture have disposed of 255 geese in 12 parks, with an eventual goal of 400 birds total.

These numbers are far below those of previous years. CBS station WCBS in New York said that in 2010, nearly 1,700 Canadian geese were slaughtered.

The round-ups began in 2009, after a bird struck U.S. Airways Flight 1549, the plane flown by Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III. The plane made a miraculous water landing in the Hudson River that January.

The "Miracle on the Hudson" prompted government officials to attempt to remove as many geese as possible from the New York area to reduce the chance of further bird strikes. The roundups have taken place every June and July since, the time of year when geese are molting and unable to fly.

The program has prompted outcries from animal rights activists. A group known as GooseWatch NYC protested outside the office of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in May.

"Pilots need to be aware of where the birds are flying in order to avoid them," David Karopkin, a member of GooseWatch, told WCBS. "Killing birds is never going to solve this problem."

Last year, the slaughtered geese were sent to Pennsylvania and eventually made their way to food banks in the area. The New York Times reports that, this year, the goose meat will stay in New York State. Each goose is expected to yield roughly one pound of breast meat.

Numbers are so much lower this year that some geese aren't even being collected. In Brooklyn's Prospect Park, inspectors found so few geese that they decided to leave the population alone. Much of that is due to efforts from The Humane Society of the United States. The organization has spearheaded programs to humanely remove geese from the park by modifying habitats, discouraging park visitors from feeding geese, and using herding dogs to keep birds out of the park.

Patrick Kwan, New York state director for the HSUS, said in a press release: "The Prospect Park program encapsulates a more modern, humane and long-term solution to wildlife management."

[USDAPROPAGANDA]

mlsimms, actually bird strike reporting in the USA is not mandatory even yet. It has been mandatory in Canada since 2006 but still isn't in the USA. An aviation expert recently commented on the dual role played by the FAA...on one hand they promote and protect the aviation industry while on the other they are in charge of legislating laws relating to aviation. And in this case the FAA has not yet made bird strike reporting mandatory. It is also notable the birdstrike data base in the USA is maintained by the USDA WS. And the International Birdstrike Committee didn't seem impressed with how they kept it. http://www.int-birdstrike.org/Warsaw_Papers/IBSC26%20WPID4.pdf
www.int-birdstrike.org


"Despite recommendations, FAA still not budging on mandatory bird strike reports by Nolan Peterson May 10, 2012. "While the FAA has not endorsed mandatory reporting, the administration has adopted another one of the NTSB's key recommendations - mandatory wildlife hazard assessments and wildlife hazard plans for all certificated airports. THESE PROGRAMS HOWEVER ALSO DEPEND ON ACCURATE bird strike data to be effective."
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=205369

[USDAPROPAGANDA]

"Each goose is expected to yield roughly one pound of breast meat."
...actually last year they rounded up 575 geese and got 425 lbs which is 3/4 of a pound of meat. Do the economic math. Geese are wild game, sponges for environmental toxins and need more testing than factory raised animals. Combine that cost with the cost of 'processing' all these birds for 3/4 of a pound of meat for what results in about 3/4 of an average chicken breast worth of meat. You could buy chicken breast a lost cheaper than this 'charitable donation' is costing.
Birmingham food banks turn down geese- "For us not being able to guarantee how often people are going to eat it, then we probably should err on the side of safety and not distribute it," she said. The geese habitat at the city parks provided the biggest risks for the food bank, as they were unsure about what the geese had ingested, such as insecticides and pesticides, Kelley said.
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/07/food_bank_turns_down_meat_from.html

" Canada considers its own geese unfit for consumption, even by the poverty-stricken, and
says Gail Nyberg, director of Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank (Canada's largest), the meat tastes bad. "If I won't eat them, I won't serve them -- and I won't eat them. Just because someone is low-income, I don't think we should ask them to eat something that most Canadians wouldn't eat."
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/gutcheck/2011/06/canada_goose_homeless_.

"Wild Waterfowl - Mergansers are the most heavily contaminated waterfowl species and should not be eaten. EAT NO MORE THAN TWO MEALS PER MONTH of other wild waterfowl; you should SKIN them and REMOVE ALL FAT before cooking, and DISCARD STUFFING after cooking. Wood ducks and Canada geese are less contaminated than other wild waterfowl species and diving ducks are more contaminated than dabbler ducks. (Contaminants - PCBs, mirex, chlordane, DDT).

http://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/outdoors/fish/health_advisories/advice_on_eating_game.htm

[MBrooklyn]

As long as birds and aircraft share the skies you will NEVER eliminate all bird strikes. NYC is situated over the Atlantic Flyway for millions of migrating birds...millions.
The birds that flight 1549 struck in January of 2009 were migratory geese from Labrador, Canada flying 5000 feet up. Killing birds on the ground would have NEVER stopped that incident.

Additionally, these airports were constructed on existing wetlands on a major migration route.

Deal with it and do the right thing.
Stop using my hard earned tax dollars to kill.

Birds fly! They know no boundaries. Come to think of it, neither do humans.

[JamesScotto]

Have any decision makers mentioned the possibility of a device that could prevent a goose from being sucked into the engine? With our high level of technology, I would think this is possible. Instead of spending 24 million dollars to replace new street signs with new street signs, or more millions to put waterfalls on the Brooklyn Bridge (which ended up killing trees by splashing salt on them), can't we find funds to protect life? It seems as though we just keep building and building and if other sentient beings are "in the way", we just kill them. It's nothing but repeated death.

[USDAPROPAGANDA]

James, if you do some research on various airports wildlife management you will see only airports that have the USDA do their 'wildlife hazard assessments' are continually rounding up and killing birds off the immediate airport grounds. No airport in Canada, including Vancouver, BC which has over 200 bird strikes a year, rounds up and kills birds away from the airport.

I hope you will read these two articles by Mary Lou Simms, and spread them around. Mary Lou Simms of Helena, Alabama is a freelance investigative reporter most recently working under a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism in Washington, D.C. She is currently researching bird-strike prevention programs at a dozen airports throughout the U.S.A.

http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-commentary/2012/06/viewpoints_geese_roundups_arou.html

http://www.predatordefense.org/docs/USDA_article_KansasCityStar_Taxpayers_subsidizing_wildlife_extermination_08-18-2011.pdf

[mlsimms]

James: If you will look at the airport websites for Portland and Seattle and go into wildlife management, you will see information on keeping birds and planes safely apart. The key word here is safely. The industry trend, according to top execs, is toward long-term, nonlethal strategies that respect and preserve local avian populations. What is the cost of the NYC roundups to taxpayers? It was $100,000 last year and likely more this year. None of the NYC metros report the cost. The roundups are more about profit than passenger safety. The USDA's Wildlife Services gets its money from such "killing" contracts. There will always be bird strikes but most are minor. Pilots are reporting them now because it is mandatory so we're getting higher figures. The solution is, as Portland is doing, design the airport so that it doesn't attract birds and involve the entire community. Don't build a landfill next to JFK, for example, or a golf course nearby, or keep the grasses tall to attract nesting geese. Portland, Logan and Sea-Tac kill only in extreme circumstances (a bird refusing to leave a runway. The only airports that kill every summer are those whose wildlife programs are managed by Wildlife Services. Nobody else does that; it is considered counterproductive. WS is also facing congressional investigation for widespread brutality and misuse of taxpayer funds.

[USDAPROPAGANDA]

I really expect more from CBS. Maybe just remove the 'C'. Didn't you just interview David Soucie, aviation expert, former plane crash investigator with the FAA, and who has written a book on why planes crash? He says plane crash because of PILOTS. Watch the CBS video on why planes crash.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7412058n&tag=mnRunDownTab%3BmnRunDownList

Also check out the plane crashes at one airport - JFK Airport. Since 1960 tatal crashes at JFK have killed over 700 people ..not one related to a Canada goose or any other wildlife. Then tell us again CBS why frequent fliers should rejoice over the gassing of hundreds of innocent resident Canada geese.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_International_Airport

[PattyCandice]

CBS, why don't you do some actual research before reporting?

There were ZERO geese at Prospect Park this year to kill!

And you call that a "success?"

I believe the correct term for that is "management to extinction."

What garbage reporting. CBS should be ashamed.

[1stlttightwad]

Hey PETA,,I guess you value one goose over 159 people on a plane and how many more unknown on the ground, huh. Get a effin life and get real.

[JamesScotto]

Did I miss any mention of PETA in this article? Are there no other solutions besides death for the innocent? If we were to "get real", we'd realize that humans are extremely destructive and feel that everything revolves around us. No money for an alternate solution, like covers for the engines? Or is it the typical, human way - build everywhere and if other sentient beings get in the way, don't look at other solutions, just kill them?

[USDAPROPAGANDA]

Guess what...not one person on a commercial flight has ever died as a result of a plane running into a Canada goose. NOT ONE, ZILCH, NADA. On the other hand, in the last 20 years, over 300 Americans have been killed by domestic pets...dogs. Your villainization of Canada geese is irrational based on facts. Maybe you should go after your pets before you go after innocent Canada geese. Ay??
http://planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm