Thank you, Wayne, for your sensible and compassionate take on the
Seattle goose kill. I have forwarded your post on to the people who are
trying to get Seattle to make a better response to the geese than
killing them. I wish Seattle would learn something from Vancouver. At
least the killing has stopped for this year.

Margaret Parkinson
University District
Seattle



-----Original Message-----
From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu
[mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Wayne C. Weber
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2002 8:06 AM
To: TWEETERS
Subject: Re: Seattle Goose Kill

Tweeters,

I have read about the Seattle goose kill program from other sources,
and I am astounded that the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department,
presumably with the approval of City Council, has embarked on this
annual program of killing adult geese. The city of Vancouver, B.C.,
has similar problems with urban geese, but has chosen a very different
way of dealing with the problem.

I agree that urban geese are a problem, and that something needs to be
done to reduce their numbers. In Vancouver, at least, the urban goose
population is an artificial, human creation-- as unnatural, in many
ways, as the hordes of Starlings and House Sparrows that inhabit the
city. The Lower Fraser Valley, to the best of my knowledge, originally
had no breeding Canada Geese. About 1000 to 2000 birds wintered in
some parts of the valley (especially Pitt Meadows), but geese did not
breed there. The present resident goose population in the Lower Fraser
Valley, estimated at about 12,000, was established as a result of a
misguided effort in the 1960s and 1970s to establish a breeding
population. The current population includes genes of at least 3 Canada
Goose subspecies, further underlining how artificial and unnatural
this population is. Geese have become a serious agricultural pest in
the Lower Fraser Valley, causing significant damage to corn and other
crops. They have also become a major nuisance in public parks such as
Vancouver's Stanley Park, where their droppings foul the lawns and
pathways, they pollute urban lakes like Deer Lake in Burnaby (which
has had to be closed to swimming some years), and the birds themselves
frighten and sometimes nip young children in their eagerness to be
fed.

The city of Vancouver, however, has for many years undertaken a "goose
removal" program from Stanley Park, rather than a goose kill program.
Up to 2000 geese congregate in the park every summer, where they
undergo wing molt and are flightless for 3 weeks or so. Usually on a
day in late June, a crew of 30 or more people from various wildlife
agencies, the Vancouver Parks Board, and wildlife students herds the
flightless geese into the tennis courts at Lost Lagoon (which have
been appropriated for the purpose). The geese are then captured by
hand, and loaded into specially-designed trucks which are normally
used to deliver turkeys to market-- 2 geese to each of numerous small
cages. No geese are killed, and only a few sustain minor injuries. The
birds are then delivered to suitable feeding areas 30 to 60 miles east
of Vancouver. For several years, this goose removal program was
combined with a program to put neck collars on many of the birds,
which produced a lot of valuable information about goose movements in
the area.

Once they can fly again, many of the geese come back to Stanley Park;
however, many of them stay in their new surroundings for several weeks
or months. The goose roundup keeps Stanley Park, a beautiful and very
popular city park, largely goose-free for most of the heavy summer use
period. The program does take a lot of time and effort, and it does
nothing whatsoever to reduce the numbers of geese that descend on the
park the next year.

This year, I believe the goose roundup did not take place. I'm not
sure if the numbers were less than usual, or if officials have decided
to put more effort into other measures such as addling eggs (which
should help reduce numbers if done on a big enough scale.)

The City of Seattle should look at Vancouver's approach, and perhaps
try something similar. Vancouver did not seriously consider killing
geese-- they knew how much public opposition and outrage there would
be. Besides, the Canadian Wildlife Service (unlike the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service) refuses to issue kill permits for this kind of
problem. (They will issue scare permits, and occasionally kill
permits, for serious agricultural damage.)

I hope I won't be perceived as anti-American (I'm not!) if I say that
the American approach often seems to be-- if it's a problem or a
nuisance, kill it. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service seems to be much
more liberal in issuing kill permits for a wide variety of bird
species than is the Canadian Wildlife Service. I believe that both the
Fish & Wildlife Service and the City of Seattle should take a sober
second look at their goose control program, and consider non-lethal
control alternatives. I agree that urban Canada Geese do not belong
there and are a major nuisance, but I don't agree that the scale of
the problem justifies killing geese, or the horrific public relations
that result from a kill program. I hope that more moderate approaches
will be followed in future goose-control programs.

Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops, BC
(former Bird Control Specialist for BC Ministry of Agriculture)
contopus at shaw.ca




----- Original Message -----
From: Susen Oseth <susen at lighthawk.org>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2002 10:08 PM
Subject: FW: [HSUS-PNW:361] Seattle Goose Kill Ends (for this year)


>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-HSUS-PNW at envirolink.org
[mailto:owner-HSUS-PNW at envirolink.org]On
> Behalf Of Lisa Wathne
> Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2002 6:34 PM
> To: hsus-pnw at envirolink.org
> Subject: [HSUS-PNW:361] Seattle Goose Kill Ends (for this year)
>
>
> PRESS RELEASE from Give Geese A Chance:
>
> Seattle Goose Kill Halted
> Program an Unpopular and Expensive Failure
>
> On Tuesday afternoon, July 9, 2002, Give Geese A Chance telephone
brigade
> volunteers began getting messages from the Seattle Parks and
Recreation
> Department and from the Mayor's office that the Canada goose kill in
Seattle
> was halted. Later that day, Dewey Potter in the Park's office and
Dave
> Tacomi at the Mayor's office, confirmed that the USDA would not
attempt to
> kill more geese in Seattle this year. The USDA Wildlife Services
office in
> Olympia has refused to return calls.
>
> "We are extremely pleased to learn that our resident Canada geese
can go
> about their lives without fear of being captured and gassed," said
Give
> Geese A Chance volunteer Bob Chorush. "Four months ago, we began
getting to
> know our geese, visiting them, tracking their populations and
movements. We
> learned about them so that we could protect them, but the more we
learned
> about them the more we wanted to protect them. They are intelligent,
> beautiful, loyal and resourceful. We are very pleased that we will
be able
> to continue our emerging friendship with these geese."
>
> The yearly goose kill in Seattle is paid for by the Parks and
Recreation
> Department who have contracted with the United States Department of
> Agriculture (USDA) to kill "surplus" geese. The USDA rounds up the
geese
> during the month-long seasonal molt when they cannot fly and gasses
them to
> death in city parks.
>
> Seattle Parks Superintendent Ken Bounds invoked emergency rules to
close
> city parks and condoned the unnecessary response of more than 40
Seattle
> Police Department cruisers and three Seattle Harbor Patrol boats
when no
> laws were being broken and no member of the public was in danger.
Despite
> these "safety precautions" the USDA agents were only able to kill
about 64
> out of an anticipated kill of 1000 resident Canada geese in the
Seattle
> area.
>
> "Ken Bounds should resign for fiscal malfeasance," remarked Chorush.
"The
> Parks Department is threatening to cut vital programs and services
for lack
> of money, yet they consume enormous resources trying to kill a few
geese.
> The Parks Department's actions surrounding the attempted goose kills
were
> clearly out of bounds. We think that the Parks Department should be
out of
> Bounds as well."
>
> Give Geese A Chance volunteers credit their actions with saving
resident
> geese. Volunteers jumped into Lake Union and Lake Washington prior
to goose
> kills commencing so that the geese would stay away from shore.
Kayakers
> herded geese away from city parks when USDA spotter vehicles were
located.
> More than a dozen dogs patrolled Seattle beaches keeping geese in
the water.
> Cars roamed the streets and freeways searching for USDA vehicles,
while
> volunteers at parks reported on goose whereabouts and called for a
dog or
> kayak to be dispatched if needed. All of the volunteers' actions
were legal
> and volunteers quickly obeyed any legally issued police orders. Two
> volunteers who were arrested during the campaign were released
without
> charges being filed.
>
> "This was an impressive all-volunteer, grassroots effort to save the
geese
> and I feel honored to have been a part of it," states goose
volunteer
> coordinator Charlene Baxter. "We hope that the killing will not
resume next
> year, but if it does, we will protect our geese as fiercely as we
have this
> year. We do not believe that the public is willing to tolerate this
> unnecessary and inhumane slaughter. We have more than 150 volunteers
who are
> ready and willing to save our geese."
>
>