Friends of Animals Advocates a Humane Solution to Geese Control

This letter was sent to Scarsdale10583 by Edita Birnkrant of Friends of Animals: Friends of Animals, an international animal advocacy organization founded in NY State in 1957 has received many calls and emails from upset and concerned Scarsdale residents over the town officials' plans to roundup and slaughter the geese at the pond behind the library. In recent days we've put out action alerts to our members and supporters, sent out a press release and contacted local officials in response to the wrong-headed, intolerant scheme.

Last Friday I had a private meeting with Village Manager Gatta and also spoke to Jason Marra, Asst. Superintendent of Recreation, urging them to adopt the non-violent, proven strategies such as habitat and landscape modification at the pond and surrounding area, in addition to adopting policies and strategies to simply clean up goose droppings and foster tolerant attitudes towards geese and wildlife.

I presented both Gatta and Marra with several copies of Friends of Animals' informative Canada Goose Habitat Modification Manual, written by renowned ornithologist Don Heintzelman. The manual contains examples of successful scenarios in suburban and urban areas in which habitat modification, public education and fecal cleanup plans resulted in an end to the perceived conflicts between humans and Canada geese. The manual details this process. None of these strategies had even been considered by Scarsdale officials, but now they have been made to understand that killing geese and/or continually harassing them out of the pond area will not work, as more geese will merely replace the killed or chased geese, thus being counter-productive financially and as a practical matter.

Goose roundups are monstrous. USDA agents typically enter the pond area during early morning, roughly separating goslings from parents, and then stuff the bound, panicked geese and babies into crates. Next, the geese are gassed or shot to death. It was stressed to Gatta that removing the geese from the pond area will create a vacuum that will be filled as more geese are drawn back to the landscape, unless changes are made. Geese are attracted to areas with short, mowed grass with open sight lines as safe nesting areas. Growing grass longer in areas, planting native shrubs and trees to block sight lines (geese like to watch for predators), will deter geese from ponds, shores and parkland -- reducing the time they spend in any one spot.

Village Manager Gatta informed me during our meeting that he will not be signing a kill contract with the USDA, and that he is in the process of writing a memo that will include new, respectful ways of dealing with the geese in Scarsdale, as a result of our advocacy and the outcry from local residents and from others around the country. Within two weeks Gatta will be conferring with the Superintendent of Parks (and presenting the memo) with a plan of action regarding the geese, but it seems that killing is off the table now—a big victory for advocates and local residents, and the geese. Friends of Animals intends to keep the pressure on Scarsdale officials until we are fully assured that Canada geese will be spared a senseless and mean-spirited slaughter and harassment campaign.

The message was made very clear to Gatta: Habitat and landscape modification are the only environmentally sound and long-term ways to deter geese from areas where they are seen as problematic, and that's clearly what's needed in Scarsdale. Co-existence with geese and other wildlife is required as a part of civilized suburban living,

Edita Birnkrant
NY Director
Friends of Animals
1841 Broadway, Suite 350
New York, N.Y. 10023
www.friendsofanimals.org

We asked Village Manager Al Gatta to comment on the letter, and here is what he shared: "Edita has carried our conversation a little too far, but we did meet and discussed habitat change and the manual she dropped off looked to be very helpful. We are now looking at some of the alternatives, but no final decision has yet been made. The contract with the USDA Wild Life has not been signed and we are again looking at that method along with a few others. No final decision has been made, but it may be worth one more try with alternative measures."