Pols Protest More Goose Gassing

Prospect Heights Councilwoman Letitia James and three others are fighting for the lives of some of Brooklyn’s less vocal local residents – the Prospect Park geese.

Only days after it was announced that Brooklynites, activists and local politicians will  later this month in protest of future goose slaughter, along with Councilmen Brad Lander and Steve Levin and Assemblyman James Brennan, sent a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg urging the city to refrain from gassing Prospect Park’s Canada geese this summer.

Last summer, the United States Department of Agriculture killed hundreds of park geese, after they were deemed a threat to aircraft safety in the wake of US Airways Flight 1549’s crash landing in the Hudson River. Many local residents and wildlife lovers were horrified.

The contract between the city and the USDA for the gassing of park geese runs through this summer. But the letter to Bloomberg urged the city to first wait and see if alternatives to gassing implemented by the park are effective before gassing the geese again.

The Prospect Park Alliance has is working with the Humane Society, Brooklyn College and other groups to find alternative ways to keep the park geese population to a manageable size, including by “oiling” the eggs to prevent them from hatching, making a rule against feeding the geese and bringing in border collies to scare geese away.

“In light of the responsibility that Prospect Park is taking with the new plan, we are requesting that you affirm Prospect Park’s Wildlife Management plan, and commit not to cull – or allow the USDA to cull – the population of geese in Prospect Park, for at least the duration of 2011,” the letter says.

Some, however, have questioned whether these initiatives will be successful.