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When local fowl enthusiasts Ed Bahlman and Anne-Katrin Titze arrived in Brooklyn’s largest park last Thursday to check up on birds they’d treated for injuries two days before, they were alarmed. The birds from which they had removed hooks, and had disentangled from fishing wire, were gone—along with the other few hundred geese that usually graced the lake in Prospect Park. Closer inspection led to the couple’s discovery of plastic zip ties and a cluster of feathers scattered in an unusual pattern in the grass. Nearby were human footprints and a set of deep long grooves resembling tire tracks.

Bahlman and Titze wanted answers. A call to the Audubon Society provided this response: “The geese have flown away to Jamaica Bay.” The couple dismissed this explanation: geese molt between mid-June and August, thus the geese would have been unable to fly last week. A park worker speculated that the birds were “hiding from the heat.” But what nook of one of the city’s most visited parks could provide cover for several hundred birds?

It took until the following Monday for United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) spokesperson Carol Bannerman to announce that approximately 400 geese and 40 goslings had been captured in Prospect Park on July 8 at around 4 a.m., hauled away in crates and gassed—their carcasses tossed into dumpsters.

Bannerman said the raid was part of an effort to control the geese population within seven miles of JFK and LaGuardia airports since last year’s emergency commercial-plane landing in the Hudson River. In January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 reported a “double bird strike” or the entrance of a bird (or birds) into both engines, causing pilot C.B. Sullenberger to make the nearly impossible water landing.

But will gassing the geese and goslings help prevent future plane crashes? The activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) doesn’t think so. The organization released a statement denying the measure’s efficacy: "When geese are killed, more birds simply move in to use available resources, and the temporary spike in the food supply results in accelerated breeding. What follows is a vicious killing cycle that is cruel, expensive and pointless."

David Feld, National Program Director of GeesePeace, an organization that specializes in humane methods of controlling geese populations, also challenges the decision. “These geese have nothing to do with [Flight 1549]. Prospect Park geese are resident geese and don’t fly. They are low-level animals. The geese that hit that plane were migratory ones going at 5,000 feet. Killing these geese does nothing for aviation safety,” he said.

Bannerman of the USDA said that while the Hudson flight occurred at several thousand feet, USDA records indicate that over the past twenty years, 80% of the flights with aviary interference occurred at 1000 feet or less. Mike Begier, National Coordinator of Airport Wildlife Hazards Program, said it is a common fact that geese tend to fly several miles from their nesting places.

Yet Feld, Bahlman, and Titze say otherwise. Titze performed the 2010 Waterfowl Count for the New York State Ornithological Association and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. In January 2010, she counted 235 Canada geese and more than 300 mallard ducks among other fowl. “She saw these geese in the winter,” Bahlman said. “Seeing them in the winter means these geese don’t migrate. They don’t leave the park.”

Even New York State Senator Eric Adams and Former Parks commissioner Henry Stern condemned the massacre. “I am convinced that a more humane method might have been used to control the goose population,” Adams wrote in a public statement.

When questioned about other possible methods for controlling the area's geese population, Begier said the radar method, in which pilots use radar signals to determine the presence of birds, has been in development since 2006 but is yet to be implemented. He explained that egg oiling (which blocks essential gases and heat from permeating the shell, thus preventing embryo development) has been conducted but does not have the immediate effect necessary to ensure aviation safety. He also was unaware of any specific study on the flight patterns of Prospect Park geese.

Feld oversees the 60-Mile Program, initiated by GeesePeace in 2006 to help curb the geese population within sixty miles of New York City. GeesePeace has also suggested specific strategies for helping commercial aviation deal with these problems in a humane way, such as rigging cables at airports to discourage geese from flying within a certain distance of the planes.

The Prospect Park goose capture and gassing was done without Feld’s knowledge and despite the existence of his group’s alternative strategies. And many questions remain unanswered. For one, a Google Maps search indicates Prospect Park lies beyond seven miles of either airport. The USDA has yet to clarify their process for concluding the Park fell within the demarcation zone. Also, Titze and Bahlman noticed ducks missing from the park, but according to Bannerman, Canada geese were the only birds apprehended. So where did the ducks go?

This geese kill follows a series of concerns regarding the city’s maintenance of Prospect and other Brooklyn parks. Earlier this month, locals called attention to a water fountain smashed months ago that remains unfixed and protested the amount of garbage following July 4th celebrations. Perhaps most notable of all, in April, retiring after 29 years as Parks and Recreation Brooklyn Borough Commissioner, Julius Spiegel admitted his lack of enthusiasm for nature.

Additional resources:
OUTRAGE! Park Lovers Furious Over Goose Slaughter

[Please check back for updates to this piece as more information becomes available. – Ed.]

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