Pols Push Legislation to Stop Goose Gassing

Local politicians are pushing legislation that would help keep tabs on the city’s “wildlife management” – including helping to prevent another secret slaughter of Prospect Park’s geese.

Last week, Park Slope Councilman Brad Lander introduced a city council bill that would establish a Wildlife Management Committee to oversee wildlife in city parks in hopes of preventing drastic methods of wildlife management, like the mass extermination of hundreds of park geese last summer.

“These decisions should be made in the light of day, which is why I introduced legislation that would set up a process to create a comprehensive set of policies to manage wildlife in the city.  It is my hope that the resulting plan will compel the City to make more humane decisions regarding wildlife with public involvement,” Lander said via e-mail. 

The bill is co-sponsored by Prospect Heights Councilwoman Letitia James, who grew up in Park Slope.

"The park was my backyard and the geese were my friends," she said. "I have to do all that I can do to protect them for the next generation of children."

Last summer, the United States Department of Agriculture killed over 300 Canada geese in Prospect Park, in a secret midnight slaughter that horrified many local residents and wildlife lovers.

The geese were deemed a threat to aviation safety in the wake of US Airways Flight 1549’s crash landing in the Hudson River.

Under the proposed legislation, the city would form a Wildlife Management Committee composed of 11 animal experts – from academics to activists. Mayor Michael Bloomberg would appoint three of the committee members, as would Council Speaker Christine Quinn. The remaining five members would be made up parks and sanitation department employees.

The bill also calls for the board to draft a citywide wildlife management plan to promote humane treatment and “biological diversity” for park animals. If the legislation passes, the board would hear public input on how to more humanely manage wildlife in the city.

The board, however, would be purely advisory – the city would not be in anyway bound to act on the board’s recommendations.

“As we learned all too well last year there is absolutely nothing the City Council can do if the mayor and the DEP decide to cull the geese again this year,” said Rachel Goodman, a spokesperson for Lander, in an e-mail.

Still, local wildlife activists saw the bill as a step in the right direction.

“Last year's extermination of the Prospect Park Geese occurred under cover, in the middle of the night with no public process. With this bill, the community would be aware of any management plans to take place and would give the community the chance to speak out,” said Mary Beth Artz, a goose lover who recently organized the “Hands Around the Lake” event in Prospect Park to show support for the geese. She urged that geese lovers everywhere help drum up support for the law.

Some activists, though, argued that the bill isn’t quite fierce enough.

“At this time, we need more than a step in the right direction,” said Anne-Katrin Titze, an advocate for the geese and licensed wildlife rehabilitator. “The bill needs more than the requirement of public input, it must have the public represented on the Wildlife Management Advisory Board.”

The move comes after Levin and Lander (along with Assemblyman James Brennan) sent a  to Mayor Michael Bloomberg last month urging the city to refrain from gassing Prospect Park’s Canada geese this summer. The mayor has still not responded.

The Prospect Park Alliance is already 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. Levin said that Propsect Park's Wildlife Task Force is much like what he envisions on a citywide scale.

But Prospect Park’s population control may not be enough. The contract between the city and the USDA for the gassing of park geese runs through this summer – meaning its possible that this year Prospect Park’s recovering geese population might be gassed again.

"I just think our voices need to be heard and unfortunately they've been ignored," James said.