On Thursday, Humane R Evolution, a new coalition of like-minded animal advocates (including some members of Goose Watch), initiated its first campaign. HR teamed up with popular blogger and Brooklyn dweller Cathryn Swan to begin taking action and planned a day of flyering and education.
So on Thursday, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. about a dozen or so "goose lovers" (myself included) weathered the summer downpour, holding signs and handing flyers to streaming passersby as well as officious city staffer-types on their way to the Mayor's office at 250 Chambers Street.
Our flyer:
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MAYOR BLOOMBERG: STOP GASSING & SLAUGHTER OF GEESE IN NYC PARKS
1. Resident Canada Geese are NOT a threat to Airline safety. That is a ruse put forth by the mayor and a lie spread by the media.
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2. The NY City Council and other City officials should rebuke Mayor Bloomberg (212 788 300) for directing the needless slaughter, and NYC Parks Commissioner Benepe for signing off on it.
3. Let your NY City government representatives hear from you. Public Advocate Bill De Blasio (212) 669 7250, http://pubadvocate.nyc.gov/contact-us; The Mayor’s office (212 788-3000, City Council representatives: Http://council.nyc.gov/html/members/members/shtml
Last year, the US Department of Agriculture, upon invite of the Mayor, came to our town in the dead of night and rounded up the resident Canada geese living in our City's parks. The USDA hired minimum wage workers to bind their legs and bring them to a gas chamber set up at Kennedy Airport.
1,676 geese throughout the five boroughs were killed in 2010. 1,235 Canada Geese in 2009. The round-up and slaughter of the geese for 2011 will begin any day now -- unless you help to stop it.
They are planning to kill 80% of our area's beautiful Canada Geese. They will be rounded up along with their flightless goslings, cornered, trapped and then either gassed or have their heads chopped off (the "humane solution").
The city is posturing as a good-will agency by killing our geese and saying they'll feed them to the needy living in Pennsylvania -- but mercury and other toxins found in geese likely prohibit any consumption.
Mayor Bloomberg felt he had to do something, no matter how irrelevant, when Flight 1549 went down in the Hudson. He didn't want to be seen as impotent against the forces of nature.
Nature? Really? Two days BEFORE the "Miracle on the Hudson," the pilot of the Airbus A320 reported mechanical problems with that very same aircraft. In interviews he expressed his biggest fear for air safety: budget cuts, sub-par maintenance and shockingly low salaries for professional pilots (New York Magazine, Feb. 2009).
Ever since Ronald Reagen busted the Air Traffic Controllers Union in 1981 enabling the airline companies to cut salaries and increase workloads for overworked and underpaid air traffic controllers, they've looked to divert blame for accidents away from the companies' own failures to maintain high standards. The truth is that all airplanes are built and tested to withstand bird strikes. Only sub-par aircraft or aircraft with other weaknesses or vulnerabilities can be brought down by birds. Rather than bring aircraft up to standard, the Mayor has decided to exterminate a population of birds which, overwhelmingly—our communities treasure.
And what about alternatives? There are many, such as u sing Merlin Radar, altering light patterns of planes to prevent bird-plane collisions, studying migratory patterns and avoiding those bird corridors and times of day and more. But some of those methods have start-up costs and require funding—something that our Mayor absolutely abhors.
For links and further information, visit Humane Revolution
http://www.humanerevolution.org
For two hours we handed out fliers as it rained, as there was a break in the rain, and as it poured. We stood our ground, opened and closed umbrellas and promoted our cause. Surprisingly, many families, secretaries, and middle-managers stopped to listen. They seemed genuinely interested.
One 30-something woman was hilarious, smartly dressed with a veiled, fashionista milinary cap. She skimmed the flyer and blurted out in a French accent, "I am with you on this! I hate Bloomberg. He has turned New York into a Police State!" She walked away shaking her head and waving her hands.
Through-out the afternoon, people kept asking, "Why? Why is the Mayor doing this?"
Well, we said, "He’s saying it’s for air safety, but that doesn’t seem to add up. ‘Bird Strikes’ are listed by the FAA as causing only .68% of reported problems. Such a small percentage the FAA does not even list them in their own category. They are listed as ‘other.’”
One person offered his own view: that the USDA is an old-boys network, formed many, many years ago, associated with the original NRA and notorious for handing down down kill-contracts to cronies in back door deals. ("Looks like we've got us a Goose Gate, momma.")
Someone else talked about the idea of "preemptive strike." They said that the Mayor is simply killing off a species of birds in an attempt to provide “due diligence.” So, to justify a completely unjustifiable, un-just and reprehensible attack on one of our most precious resources—our wild life, the USDA has helped promote a campaign of lies.
We told people how odd it was that the Deptartment of Environmental Conservation could give the green light to the exterminations, after it issued its own environmental impact study in 2004 (the most recent environmental impact study completed when there were significantly MORE geese on the Eastern Flyway) and stated there was "no significant damage" or cause for "reduction" in numbers.
One exciting moment involved “snagging”one of the Mayor’s senior staffers, who graciously accepted a flyer from Cathryn before ducking into her sedan. Another was seeing that WNYC, WFUV and 1010 WINS all covered our campaign and had a nice write up .
At the end of the day, amazingly, we learned the city announced that the Feds are not coming to OUR park. I was reminded of my favorite quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it.”
Does that mean that Prospect Park Patrol will go back to sleep at the wee hours of the night and early morning? Absolutely not. If anything, their efforts have now accelerated. Prospect Park Goosewatch coordinators have been contacted by Goosewatch wannabe’s from all across the state. They are responding to requests for assistance.
Our communities continue to push back. “For the Love of the Geese in Prospect Park” has now spread to "For The Love of the Geese in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park" and "For the Love of the Geese at Randall’s Island," and more…
In an interview with 1010 Wins aired Friday morning, Edita Birnkrant, Director of Friends of Animals made it clear that the USDA can come rolling in with their death trucks, but if and when they do, they will be confronted. Wildlife protectors are ready to cross the line and meet the USDA with “acts of civil disobedience.”
And to think—it all started with the shock of the loss of our Park’s beloved resident geese and hell hath no fury like the love for our three baby goslings.
On June 30th from 6-8 p.m. Friends Of Animals is Hosting Pro-Canada Geese Rally. This one is at the Mayor's house. Contact protectourgeese@gmail.com for more information.
