Animal activists plan to continue their fight to save the Canada geese living on the lawn and pond behind Scarsdale Public Library at the Village Board of Trustees meeting set for 6:30 p.m., Feb. 13. “They have already voted to slaughter a bunch of geese, and we’re trying to get them to reverse it,” said Kiley Blackman of Yonkers, a member of Animal Defenders of Westchester. Blackman’s group, along with members of Westchester4Geese, plan to make the case that there are more humane and effective options than killing the geese.
Scarsdale has tapped into a federal program with the U.S. Department of Agriculture that helps communities with an overpopulation of geese to eliminate the birds and donate the resulting meat to local food banks. The move came after the village received complaints from residents who were unable to use the benches, gazebo and lawns by the library because the geese befouled the area with their droppings. New York’s goose population has risent sharply in recent decades to about 250,000 birds. Biologists with the state Department of Environmental Conservation estimate that 85,000 geese would be a desirable number.
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The USDA Wildlife Services division is a very controversial entity, currently under investigation. They have an agenda and profit-motive to kill, and they do so indiscriminately. The Sacramento Bee newspaper did a three part investigative report on this that can be easily found online. It is chilling what this agency does, and how many target animals are needlessly slaughtered as well as pets and endangered species. It is a dirty business. Why would a town like Scarsdale want to bring that element into its community? And why does Westchester County continue to use tax dollars for this? It is so easy to use non-lethal population control measures such as egg addling or Ovo Control. So easy. What is going on here?