Photos: Van Scott

This morning GooseWatch NYC volunteer Jeffrey Kramer arrived at the East Pond viewing station of Jamaica Bay "Wildlife Refuge" - he noticed lots of geese feathers on ground and white seals USDA uses to seal the crates and we have confirmed that USDA Wildlife Services conducted a roundup at the "sanctuary" this morning. Jeffrey writes:

I knew immediately a roundup had occurred. The geese never molt where the birders watch because of heavy activity. Then I saw 2 parent geese on a side trail pathetically looking for their juveniles. The male (I think) raced from me, but the female stood her ground and I walked past her. I became emotional. After crossing the firebreak trail (1/4 mile), I saw the last USDA truck (red, unmarked) pulling out of the kayak launch road (North Dyke Road) filled with crates and 2 kayaks. 4 USDA agents passed me. I asked politely how many geese were taken. An agent said they didn't know yet. I continued walking. I saw no geese either at the East Pond or in the adjacent Bay afterward.

During the past three weeks GooseWatch NYC volunteers have been on patrol every morning in parks across the city, and have also reported roundups of geese at Inwood Hill Park in Manhattan and Clove Lakes Park in Staten Island. After GooseWatch volunteer Connie Vasquez's video of the roundup was published, we were thrilled to hear the NYC Department of Environmental Protection indicate that “the latest USDA contract just expired, and the office is now taking the opportunity to review best practices to comply with the FAA’s guidelines,” pursuant to Mayor de Blasio's campaign promise to consult with experts and other major cities to effectively and humanely address the risk of bird strikes without rounding up and killing geese.

Meanwhile, however, National Park Services (which is outside the purview of the mayor) has allowed an unprecedented decimation of wildlife in its so-called refuge, with no public input whatsoever. Since Sen. Gillibrand "cut through the bureaucratic red tap" in 2012, over the past four consecutive summers USDA Wildlife Services has slaughtered at least 1,500 resident Canada geese at Jamaica Bay "Wildlife Refuge" - if you go today, you will be hard pressed to find any. Of course, hundreds if not thousands of migratory geese and other birds will be passing through in the fall and spring, ensuring the futility of this massacre. Not two years ago Dr. George Frame, biologist for National Park Service stated in a letter to Jeffrey Kramer that population of 500 resident geese at Jamaica Bay "Wildlife Refuge" at that time seemed reasonable, and just a month ago, he told another volunteer he did not anticipate a roundup would be conducted this summer because there were so few geese. 

If not for GooseWatch NYC volunteers, the public would not know about any of this summer's roundups of Canada geese in NYC parks by USDA.  All of our requests for information and dialogue have either been ignored, or met with falsity. The killing of NYC's Canada geese is conducted in our name, with our tax dollars, in our parks, yet transparency seems to be a real problem for the Port Authority of NY & NJ, National Park Service, and USDA Wildlife Services. 

This cruel and ineffective slaughter of NYC's wildlife must stop

Sign & share: In Defense of Animals has launched a new petition calling on the Port Authority of NY & NJ and USDA Wildlife Services to end the killing NYC's Canada geese and use non-lethal methods in solving human-wildlife conflicts. Click Here.