Geese Advocates Flock To Scarsdale Village Hall

Animal rights advocates and vendors with solutions for geese control made a flap at Village Hall on Tuesday night 1-22 at the meeting of the Village Board of Trustees. They attended the meeting in response to a resolution that was passed on January 8 that authorized the village to retain the USDA to euthanize the geese at Library Pond and reprocess the meat for human consumption. Many of the speakers were not from Scarsdale but flocked to the area to defend the geese or to lobby for the Village to retain them to help move the geese out of town.

Among the vendors, was Robert Guadagna of Geesebusters who travelled to Scarsdale from Northport on Long Island to encourage the village to retain him to use his mechanical eagle and whistle to scare the geese away. He claimed that this humane method offered "a onetime payment for a lifetime solution" and said that his services had been used at Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn and at the Catholic Cemetery in Rockville Center. Also before the board was John Anastas from Trumbull, CT who has developed a "fearwolf" which is a facsimile of a wolf that he has placed on his dock and in a pond to scare the geese away. He asked the Village Board to "allow us to test our solution."

Goose advocates also travelled from far and wide to protect Scarsdale's geese from extermination. Licensed wildlife rehabilitator Loraine Izzo said she was "appalled and dismayed that the village would resort to these extermination practices without doing research into alternatives." She urged the board to look into other methods of controlling the geese, saying, "we need to coexist with wildlife, that's how we will succeed on this earth."

Robin Gager, who grew up in Scarsdale and is the author of a cookbook for animal lovers called, Don't Eat Me, came to town on behalf of the geese. She explained that as a member of Goosewatch she spent the summer saving geese in New York City. She said she was "horrified" that the board would hire the USDA, calling them "contract killers like thugs or the mafia." She said that the USDA had tapped her phone and harassed her. She also warned that the geese would return saying, "you can get rid of ten and ten more will replace them." She recommended that the village find an organic solution such s growing tall marsh grass around the pond.

Lynn Manheim from Whitestone is also a member of Goosewatch and said, "Robin and I stood guard for the geese at Middle Bay Park. I will go and protect the geese wherever I need to go." She added, "These animals are not made for human consumption. They have all sorts of nasty stuff in their flesh."

Kylie Blackman, a Tuckahoe resident and a member of Westchester for Geese said that her group got involved with Yonkers to "interfere with this random killing." She applauded Yonkers' efforts to use the "goosinator," a radio controlled device to control the population. Saying, "They poop, I poop, you poop, we all poop," she said Yonkers was decent and intelligent and she "expects the same from Scarsdale." Ann Muller from Wildlife Watch in New Paltz NY told trustees that Rockland County initially killed unwanted geese but since 1994 they have developed non-lethal methods of goose dissuasion including border collies and egg addling. Speaking of the contract with the USDA she said, "Please don't sign that contract and you will spare the community all the dissension that you hear right now."

Among the local defenders was 50-year resident Robert Phillips of Bradley Road who said that his country club used a dog to rid themselves of the geese and Kim Gold who framed her argument as a moral dilemma. She said, "these are not the values we stand for as a community," and asked the trustees to take a comprehensive approach and consider a low wire fence around the pond, tall grasses, and feeding the birds bread laced with birth control. She also told the Board that her daughter submitted a petition defending the geese with 247 signatures from Scarsdale Middle School students.

Sharon Klahr of Central Avenue said that the pond is "a place to go interact with the geese." She said "geese are sentient, feeling beings," and told of seeing an autistic child reacting to the geese at library pond.

Nancy Magliari of Yonkers said, "you can measure the intelligence of a society by the way it treats its animals," and urged trustees to "change your mind." Steve Kanney of Bell Road said, "It seems to be evident that killing the geese won't solve the problem," and Nick from Ross Road said that "it should be a last resort to the kill the geese," and said that "The majority of people don't see the geese as a problem."

It is not known whether or not the Village has already paid the USDA the $5,054 to implement the program or if they will now reconsider the resolution that was passed at their January 8, 2013 meeting.