@goosewatchnyc
The first planning meeting for Goosewatch-NYC (see below) will be held within the next two weeks at a location to be announced. Goosewatch is the only direct action wildlife group that thwarted the USDA’s planned attack on all Canada Geese residing in Prospect Park in June 2011. The USDA picks June to kill Canada Geese because the Geese are at their most vulnerable and cannot fly, and they have babies (goslings) who (obviously) are completely defenseless.
They come with their death trucks and they slaughter. It is cruel, it is inhumane and it is unwarranted. No EPA studies have been provided that prove we have “too many geese,” and – in addition – we have no national wildlife agency that protects, assesses, nurtures or maintains our wild areas which are all too rapidly becoming suburban sprawl. The faster wildlife is slaughtered, the faster these areas can get on with the business of pollution. If wildlife were protected, those areas would still remain.
The USDA slaughters wildlife for the millions of dollars it collects both on the agency side (The dept. is “Wildlife Services” a $70Million subdivision of the USDA) plus the $millions they collect in contracts (NYC and other private interests – especially big agriculture) pay big money– and they are motivated by developers who have long been frustrated as Canada Geese were protected (formerly) by the Migratory Bird Act. Thanks to moneyed interests, those protections now are all but completely gutted and no wildlife is beyond the reach of the USDA. (see http://www.canadageese.org)
Not only is this govt. agency without any transparency or accountability, they have profited by destroying wildlife rampantly across this country, wiping out everything and anything that Big Agriculture says gets in the way of their production.
Bloomberg uses “air safety” as a smokescreen to save face. Just two days before the infamous Flight #1549 went down over the Hudson, that airplane had reported serious equipment malfunctions. Nobody is talking about what impact Reagan-era slashes and cutbacks have had on air traffic safety. Well, nobody, unless you count Captain Sullenberger himself who has stated time and again that cutbacks in salaries, union busting and poor maintenance of airplanes have created unsafe conditions.
Mayor Bloomberg’s edict, “If it’s a choice between a goose or a person, I’ll choose a person every time.” Was a smokescreen when, in fact, actual disruption from “bird strikes” accounts for less than .068% of any air traffic incident. Lower wages, higher demands, union busting and other quality control issues are at the root of air safety problems. Pilot error is cited as the number one cause of fatality and often is a result of underpaid and overworked pilots making faulty decisions.
Goosewatch-NYC stepped up last year and forged a community of wildlife supporters who rallied around the geese in Prospect Park and that park was the ONLY park spared the butchery of “Wildlife Services.”
This year, the death trucks will be back, and Goosewatch-NYC is stepping up with Direct Action in every borough.
If this interests you – contact goosewatching@gmail.com
Or DM @goosewatchnyc
Or DM me — @johannaclear
Also
Humane Revolution
From: GooseWatch NYC [mailto:goosewatching@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, March 12, 2012 3:53 PM
To: GooseWatch NYC
Subject: Fwd: Documenting the USDA NYC Canada goose round ups in 2012
Last May: almost a year had passed since the USDA wiped out Prospect Park’s Canada geese, when the ‘miracle goslings’ were discovered.
We knew that NYC’s geese were innocent – the USDA takes in hundreds of millions of dollars every year to kill off wild animals for any reason they can get away with. Killing animals will never guarantee flight safety, and other methods actually might if we tried them.
But if the USDA was going to come back a second year, we promised to be waiting with cameras and cell phones to document the round up and draw a crowd, so we could know exactly how our tax dollars are being spent to send government agents around to destroy wildlife in public parks. We spent every night at the park waiting, and the USDA did not return. But they killed 575 geese from 13 other parks.
Now: It’s time to take this plan citywide. The round ups must be exposed and stopped. We plan to be there when the USDA comes back to NYC this spring. It won’t be easy but we learned from last year’s efforts, this year we’ll be more efficient and effective. For two months we’ve been scouting parks surveyed by the USDA in 2011, and now we have a good list of parks to start from in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Bronx and Queens where buildings and houses are in direct view of parks with geese. (Check out the pics! I also attached a few.)
Here is what is involved in the plan:
1. We need to find and organize folks to become “Goosewatchers”, ideally people who live in direct view or the vicinity of these residential parks where the geese nest
2. Photograph the event and “rally the troops” – when the USDA arrives, with literally one phone call we can disseminate a pre-recorded emergency message alert by text, email and phone
This plan has three main objectives: (a) find people across NYC who support the geese (b) document the round ups (c) bring public attention. We can poster buildings, talk to people one-on-one, etc. We might not be able to stop the USDA from coming for the geese (yet) – we can be there when it happens for all NYC to see.
If you can help us take a stand for NYC’s geese, and all wildlife, please contact me. Our group is going meet in the next month to discuss these ideas further and get this plan off the ground (time/place TBD). We’ve got a good group now but we (geese included) need all the support we can find so please pass this along if you know someone who might be interested in joining this cause.
Thanks,
David
1-567-NY-GOOSE
Twitter @GooseWatchNYC
Facebook GooseWatchNYC
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