Prospect Park's Geese to Be Eaten by Pennsylvanians

By Rebecca Marx Wed., Jun. 15 2011 at 5:07 PM

Following last year's mass slaughter of Prospect Park geese, the Department of Environmental Protection is trying to appease its numerous critics. Not by emphasizing its concern for animal welfare, mind you, but by touting its dedication to recycling. This summer, instead of being left to rot in a landfill, the geese will feed Pennsylvanians.

Because Pennsylvania already has "established protocol for processing and distributing slaughtered geese," City Room reports, the birds will be sent to a slaughterhouse there and then distributed to various food banks. New York has been busy putting its own protocols into place, so next year the culled geese will be destined for local food banks.

Incidentally, there are many recipes for Canada geese to be found on the Internet. The Atlantic even wrote a whole story about it last fall, complete with a recipe for goose mortadella. Making it only a matter of time, we suppose, until some enterprising locavore decides to start lurking around Prospect Park, shotgun in hand.

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ASteinberg

As a Pennsylvanian (Philadelphia) who has been following the goose killings in New York (and elsewhere) with horror and mounting anger, I am FURIOUS and OUTRAGED over this latest insanity. Has your mayor completely lost his mind? This little mini-Hitler for animals needs to be impeached. If he spent half as much time and money on running New York as he spends on killing the geese, he might actually solve a problem occasionally. But instead, he stuffs the pockets of his cronies, the USDA, full of your tax dollars (a LOT of them) to massacre harmless geese year after year - proof that the killing programs don't work, but the USDA knew that all along. Every year, they laugh all the way to the bank. Communities have learned after being scammed by the USDA for years that their plan doesn't work, is just a never-ending source of revenue for the agency, and when they turn to non-lethal humane goose management companies, they have far better long-term success at lower cost.

However, apparently, this year the USDA is dragging Pennsylvania into its corrupt plan and using the state to help wipe the blood off their hands. They now seem to think that they can fool the public into accepting this obscene and unnecessary slaughter by trying to make it sound charitable by donating the murdered geese to the poor. Never mind that what they are really doing is using the poor as trash cans to get rid of the geese. Geese eat a lot of things that are treated with pesticides and most places will not accept goose meat because it is much too heavily compromised for human consumption. Oh, but not Pennsylvania. I wonder how much they are paying the PA officials to look the other way on that one.

If you want to know just what a corrupt agency the USDA is, read a book titled "Mad Sheep: The True Story Behind the USDA's War on a Family Farm" by Linda Faillace. This despicable agency ruined this innocent family just to cover their own butts and protect their own interests, certainly not the public health. Keep this in mind with the situation with the geese. It is all about money and protecting special interests and nothing else. It is a cautionary tale about why you should never hand over too much trust and power to corrupt and incompetent government agencies like the USDA, Dept. of Natural Resources, etc., and the people with personal agendas and special interests who are in bed with them. Hint: Follow the money trail and the word of so-called "experts", and if you disregard the warning, stock up on K-Y jelly. You'll need it.

OnyxE

Here's what Canada has to say about the US exterminating Canada geese (its CRAZY):

"Gord MacPherson from the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority was adamant about his stance on bird culling. 'We don't cull birds. It's crazy,'' .....................But while others grumble about ``goose poop'' spoiling beaches and worry about bird feces contaminating waters, the concern from U.S. officials is mainly focused on the threat birds pose to airplanes.

``When you consider how many hundreds, thousands of planes a day are crossing North America, how many have come down because they've hit a goose? It's one of these freak things,'' said Gross.

At Pearson International Airport in Toronto, a program is in place that uses predatory birds such as hawks to scare away geese and other birds.

But Canadian conservationists said ultimately controlling Canada geese is about managing and planning cities.

``I don't like the human solution,'' Cheskey said, referring to culling.

``When we create the conditions for something to thrive and we don't like it, we kill it. I don't like that philosophy.''

http://www.fm96.com/channels/n...

OnyxE

Last year, this year, and looking ahead to next year. The USDA is out of control and is sucking up taxpayers money on stupid, ineffective, and what may be illegal Canada goose slaughters. Watching this unfold from Canada and I could not be more disgusted; NYC a world class city...I hope not!!

I am hoping the Animal Liberation Front starts stepping up here- as it is pretty obvious until some militancy is involved, making it more uncomfortable to kill these innocent birds than to not kill them, this Doombird inspired idiocy will continue.