Goosicide
[Hat tip: Althouse]
New York State’s got a plan to eliminate 170,000 Canada geese—not by deportation, but by wholesale slaughter:
The captured geese [would be] placed alive in commercial turkey crates. The geese would be brought to a secure location and euthanized with methods approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association. Euthanized geese would be buried.”
There’s an interesting comment thread afterward; the very first one should chill the blood if nothing else does:
Funny how often humans figure the best solution is massive slaughter. Seems to me that reducing the human population of the state by about the same number would have a huge beneficial impact on the environment, general safety, the economy, and so forth.
Anyway I hope this dastardly plan comes back to haunt them, when some unforseen result like population booms in even more invasive, destructive species, shows up.
Most of the commenters are strongly against the goose killings, although they don’t all express themselves in quite the violently anti-human manner as that first one. As for me, I question whether the plan isn’t just a stopgap measure—won’t the remaining ones reproduce fast enough to replenish their numbers in almost no time at all?
Where I live, Canada geese are known as flying rats. There’s a whole bunch of them and their now-grown-up goslings in the neighborhood. They’re cute but create vast quantities of poop. Basically, I can’t stand the bloody things, although they’re attractive—and they also sometimes cause air crashes, which is the point of the NY goosicide in the first place.
This comment is reasonable, IMHO:
It’s about time. The goose population is, as the article says, completely out balance. There are no predators to reduce their numbers or control their tremendous rate of reproduction. They don’t even migrate anymore because the living is so good here. Do nothing?????!!!!! Are you insane???!!!
How many of you want yourself or your loved ones to be the unfortunate air travellers who die on impact because Capt. Sully wasn’t there to land them in the Hudson?
This commenter makes an interesting point—although I part company with him on the final part of his last sentence:
These over-populations are an example of both the lack of natural predation together with the decline of hunting as a recreational activity in New York.
If the hand-wringers here don’t want the state to engage in such culls ”” let them be supportive of introducing natural predators. Adding a few foxes and wolves to Prospect Park would do wonders for cutting down the numbers of both the over-populated, non-migratory, Canada geese as well as those yappy little dogs one finds there.
It strikes me that the softhearted naysayers are profoundly ignorant of what they profess to revere, ecology.
And a lot of people say “eat the geese,” which sounds reasonable but is rated as not a great solution by those who claim to know what Canada geese taste like.
I thought Canada Geese were migratory. iow – don’t they go back and forth between New York and Canada? Shouldn’t this be a federal responsibility according to our DOJ?
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
[For a light hearted take on our present peril]
LibertyAtStake: it is my understanding (based mainly on comments here and there; I haven’t researched it) that they have mostly stopped being migratory in places like NY, because they can get all the food they want.
Free the Canadian 170,000! /liberal
“And a lot of people say “eat the geese,” which sounds reasonable but is rated as not a great solution by those who claim to know what Canada geese taste like.”
==============
Two words: PET FOOD
Have you seen what a 20-pound bag of cat kibbles costs these days?
Don’t waste a perfectly good food source. I can see the ads now: “Locally-grown, completely organic, goose-meat pet food”. And if we do large goose culls every month or so, the geese will have a reason to fly, fly away….
Shouldn’t this be “Beware the lame goose Congress?”
they have mostly stopped being migratory in places like NY, because they can get all the food they want.
Golf courses are particularly favored hangouts for Canada geese. Perhaps that’ll get Preznit Golfsalot’s attention; think of the number of jobs that could be created or saved cleaning up golf courses. (On the other hand, maybe the O’s so used to poop he doesn’t notice it any more).
There are two aspects:
One is why wait for some problem to become 3 fold before trying to solve it.
The other is that Illuminati love to prepare us psychologically for everything. Anything and everything is a precursor to the next piece of bad news. Could Goosicide be a precursor to depopulation.
http://phoenixrisingfromthegulf.wordpress.com/2010/07/23/bp-nuclear-option-spells-mega-disaster-for-gulf-of-mexico/#comment-112
I bet the people in Haiti are sick of eating rice 6 months after the earthquake and would enjoy some protein.
Or the predators in the local zoo would probably like some goosey flesh? Waste not, want not.
Canada goose is the best tasting fowl I’ve ever had, bar none.
PA Pat: “Perhaps that’ll get Preznit Golfsalot’s attention; think of the number of jobs that could be created or saved cleaning up golf courses.”
That would be a two-fer, wouldn’t it? ‘Cause all these new “saved or created” “jobs” would count as Greens jobs!
From the Linnaean name, we now have a neologism for killing geese: branticide.
Just thought you’d want to know…
I’m against burying them.
Why not feed someone, or a lot of someone’s?
OK, OK, I get it, you didn’t want to know.
Naturally, the first commenter you quote will…exempt themselves and much of their family from their proposed solution.
I actually had an accident several years ago when I swerved to avoid two geese that walked out into the road in front of me. It was raining, and I lost control and spun out.
Neither the geese nor I were injured. The cop who showed up at the scene advised me never to swerve for anything smaller than a deer.
The only time I’ve seen the local Canada geese “migrate” has been flying from the local lake in the morning to somewhere, probably the wheat and corn fields and then back again at night.
At the local city lake where I sail, someone came by and took all of the geese. We suspect that the city decided that the mess of all of the geese affected the many recreation spots around the lake as well as the water quality since the lake is a primary water source.
I’ve never understood why the state finds capturing them, packing them, and then killing them as acceptable. It cost a great deal of money in both man power and physical resources and you are *still* killing an animal (and there is no nice way to make a living animal into a dead one). They can say “approved by the ” to make people feel better, but you still have to kill it.
Instead they could – for a charge and profit if they want, for free if not – open it up to managed hunting. They get the revenue, get the animals killed in a quick and humane manner, and can control their population over a sustained period of time instead of mass killings every once in a while that do *nothing* for their ecologic welfare.
What it lacks is the feel good idea of “someone took care of it” and not having to think about how it happened.
It’s the same way that someone berates me for hunting whilst eating a hamburger. That cow somehow died, somehow got it organs removed, somehow got its meat removed from its bones, and somehow got cut into steaks and ground into hamburger. However shooting one, gutting it (especially gutting one – you should *never* do that), and butchering the carcass are Evil acts to be totally avoided. The difference is I know the process from start to finish whereas they can have it “somehow” end up in plastic wrapped packages in a cooler – probably in a less humane manner than the deer but out of sight out of mind.
I figure most think the cow decided today was the day, stepped up to the freezer, fell over and broke into nice neat steaks and roasts and the cow fairy disappeared their organs (except the ones we eat).
Interesting story on the lack of migration. .
Geese do not migrate instinctively. The young must be taught. The premise with the stationary flocks, is that goslings hatched, parents died, goslings set up residence. Generations of non-migratory birds led to huge stationary flocks. Northern Virginia is over-run.
There was a TV series some years ago about a man who imprinted himself on a group of orphan goslings, then taught them to follow him in an ultra-light. He eventually was successful in leading them to our area in Northern Virginia, then back to Canada. I saw a presentation that he gave at the local destination site.
His ultimate goal, once the concept was proven, was to lead trumpeter swans back to the eastern shore of Maryland. This had been a migration destination for them in the past, but for unknown reasons, they stopped returning. Don’t know if he ever did that.
I love to watch geese fly; and they are a riot when they land in formation on a frozen pond. However, as my user name suggests I do not want them around airports. My next door neighbor’s son was killed when a U. S. Air Force AWACS plane hit a flight of geese shortly after take-off in Alaska. Airplanes and geese are a bad mix.
BTW, controlled hunts have become a staple in Northern Virginia in recent years. As one would imagine, they are controversial. People who do not play golf, fish the rivers and lakes, or frequent other favorite goose toilet facilities really get their dander up.
The controvers brings to mind the federal ban on slaughtering horses for consumption. There were two plants in the Dallas area that were doing this, apparently they eat horses in France, but last I heard the Feds were shuting that down. So what happens to old horses now? Well, apparently they get sent to mexico for slaughter. ridiculous.
When I was in the Balkans, in Kosovo, I saw people herding Geese like shepards, or maybe leading them-I dont recall the exact way they did it. Strange sight to my eyes.
strcpy: well, a lot of the Canada geese live in populated areas where hunting would be a no-no.
Canadian geese are generally too “gamey” and require much the same preparation as venison or bear meat to make them palatable. On the other hand, farm-raised, corn-fed geese are yummy. Roast goose stuffed with baked apples. Now there is a gift from Heaven. As to “euthanizing” the geese – so what? That is what Obamacare has in mind for the Baby Boomers. And we taste even worse than Canadian geese. Must be all of that DLS back in the ’60’s.
Instead they could – for a charge and profit if they want, for free if not – open it up to managed hunting.
Good idea, but I’m not so sure this would be permissible without federal acquiescence. Whether they migrate or not, Canada geese may still be considered “migratory waterfowl” for hunting purposes and thus under federal jurisdiction. It’s been a while since I hunted, but I remember having to purchase a “duck stamp” for my hunting license, and the state fish & game authorities made clear these were issued by the feds.
Speaking of “rats with antlers”, I remember reading somewhere a while back that there are now more whitetail deer in North America than at the time when the first European settlers arrived. The deer’s main predators east of the Mississippi, the mountain lion and the wolf, have either decamped to points west (the cat), or have been almost entirely eliminated south of the Canadian border (the wolf). With hunting no longer a necessity, and its decline as a sport, the whitetail’s main predator is now the automobile. But the do-gooders get upset with any thought of controlled culls, with the result that the well-fed deer continue to proliferate. As anyone with a garden or who has driven along the Interstates in the eastern U.S. could attest.
Here in Bellevue, WA, we’ve had a problem with Canada geese since I’ve lived here (20 years); the geese eat grass and will settle in where they feel safe and have grass, i.e., golf courses or the office park along where I go running, a real mine field. Many attempts were made, but several years ago the city began spraying a sealant on the eggs and they don’t hatch. After a few years, the problem is much reduced.
We still get the migratory birds, but that only lasts a few weeks.
waltj,
There is an additional factor driving the deer population upward: they are “edge dwellers”. What this means is deer need both forest and field. Forest to hide in and field to graze in. When the Europeans first arrived, the eastern US was covered in forest except for small clearings made by indians or fire or storms, etc. Now there are many more fields , yards, parks, roadsides, etc, for them to graze in. Solid Old Growth forest are not condusive to grass growth- not at all- way to dark at the bottom.
One of my co-workers lived in the northern US for a while, commented that the local hunting liscence in one state was hundreds of dollars, and the season only lasted a short while- so basically the government was discouraging hunting while being overrun with deer.
As far as death goes- which would you rather die of : 1) Fang and claw? or 2) bullet?
I suspect bullets are generaly less “cruel”, yet there are those who want to re-introduce predators but also want to ban hunting.
makes no sense.
I’m kind of amused at the idea some people have that hunting geese near populated areas is so dangerous.
The weapon is a shotgun – preferably pump action.
Shotguns tend to be short range weapons.
Yes, the effect of a shotgun blast at close range – even with bird shot – can be devastating, but keep in mind that anyone shooting at geese is going to be pointing the gun barrel up in the air and not horizontally.
The practical effect of this is that the bird shot is going to dissipate it’s energy relatively quickly. By the time it comes down, it could be no more hazardous than very small hail or sleet.
It’s hazardous to the goose, of course, but he has to be within a very specific cone within a specific distance from the muzzle of the shotgun before he’s going to be in any kind of danger, and that cone by necessity is going to be angled up from the ground.
If he gets outside of that cone, he’s home free.
Another factor is the federal push to eliminate lead in bird shot. I think they tried bizmuth and/or copper as a replacement for lead. No idea what they are using now, though.
Anyway, the point is that modern *green* ammo is supposedly even shorter range than the old fashioned lead pellets. It requires more skill and experience to actually hit the bird.
If New York really and truly wanted to eliminate their budget issues, they should *liberalize* (love using that word in this context..hehe…) their goose hunting so that more people can start blasting holes in empty sky and just extract a small tax on each box of ammo!
Poor ammo choices, inexperienced hunters, revenue generated by lots of spent ammo per bagged goose – a lot of their problems would disappear overnight, including but not limited to the geese!
After all, with all of those brand new hunters shooting away – they are bound to hit something!
The idea that it’s better somehow to capture, crate, and euthanize geese than to let slip man’s inner instinct to hunt is ridiculous.
it should point out to you how redistribution of wealth changes species demographics… (even if they say it doesnt)
I’ve seen an alternate solution to this issue described elsewhere:
Swans.
As I understand it, swans are relatively solitary, very territorial, and one of the few birds that can go toe-to-toe with geese.
They will, literally, chase the geese out of their territory.
Introduce a breeding pair of swans to any lake area you want to get rid of the geese in, and your problem is solved.