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Seattle's Doomed Geese
By Laurel Holliday
USDA Wildlife agents pen up the geese prior to gassing them. |
Authorized by a USDA permit to kill up to 4200 geese in the Puget Sound region, Wildlife agents descend on Seattle city parks just after dawn, accompanied by as many as 15 police officers, half a dozen cruisers, and the Harbor Patrol boat. The location of the roundup is kept secret by the USDA. So, volunteers with Give Geese A Chance, an all-volunteer, grass-roots group of about 100 Seattleites, and members and supporters of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) stand watch at Seattle parks, hoping to scare geese away if Wildlife agents arrive.
As soon as the agents are spotted, volunteers with cell phones activate a phone tree that allows activists and supporters to very quickly converge on what Lisa Whatne, HSUS director for Oregon and Washington, calls "the killing zone."
Adult geese are vulnerable to capture mid-June to mid-July because they are molting and cannot fly, and recently hatched goslings are equally ground bound. Wildlife agents lure the geese with food, then shove them into gas chambers mounted in pickup trucks. Whatne says, "The chambers, essentially metal boxes pumped full of carbon dioxide, are dark and cramped and according to an HSUS veterinarian, it is likely that many of the birds died a miserable death of suffocation."
USDA Wildlife agents loading the geese one by one into the gas chamber mounted in the back of the pickup truck. |
What could possibly require the extermination of the birds who, as a group, are second in intelligence only to the avian species that includes ravens, crows, and jays. In a word, POOP--or "geese grease" as their detractors sometimes call it. Many people might be puzzled by the seemingly extreme measures to avoid a few bird droppings. But the problem isn't only aesthetic. The geese frequently excrete a sizable amount of green slimy goo that, unlike thin white duck feces, does not easily disappear into the grass or wash away in the rain. The geese are instinctively drawn to waterfront areas and open fields, which means that for recreation-minded citizens, the poop becomes a major problem at beaches, parks, and athletic fields.
"We have over 40 acres of athletic fields at the University of Washington," says Charles Easterberg, a wildlife biologist in UW's Department of Environmental Health and Safety, who oversees all pest control for the campus. "The problem is that we have an excessive number of Canada geese. Each goose poops 28 times per day. Some years we spend thousands of dollars dealing with it."
In addition to being messy to stroll through, play in, or sit in, the droppings can be dangerous, Easterberg says. They can cause injury accidents on the athletic field, and increase bacteria levels in lakes to the point that swimming beaches have to be closed. Still, Easterberg says, "I have mixed feelings about them. They are stately, beautiful birds."
Bellevue resident Jill Cooper camped out on the swim dock at Magnusson Park to draw attention to the goose killings. |
Representing the University of Washington, Easterberg is one of 18 participants in The Waterfowl Management Committee, a cooperative that was formed 14 years ago to work with the USDA to solve the goose problem. The USDA says it is under a federal injunction which prevents it from releasing the identities of the participants in The Waterfowl Management Committee, but The Seattle Press has learned who they are: The Boeing Company, Bellevue, Bothell, Federal Way, Kent, Kirkland, Mercer Island, Redmond, Renton, SeaTac, the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, Seattle Public Utilities, Tukwila, Woodinville, King County Parks, University of Washington, USDA Wildlife Services, and the U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife. Each participant paid $3500-$4000 this year to the USDA to help solve the goose problem.
Ironically, the agency they are paying to solve the problem--the USDA-- created the goose problem in the first place. About 30 years ago, thinking that the Canada geese were about to go extinct, USDA Wildlife Services agents relocated geese from the Columbia River to waterfront locations throughout the state.
It was thought that the transplanted geese and their goslings would migrate, as Canada geese always had. But they didn't. The relocation may have disrupted the geese's migration instinct and/or the Puget Sound region offered such attractive habitat that they had little motivation to go anywhere else.
Mike Linnell, assistant state director of USDA Wildlife Services for Washington and Alaska, describes a number of ways that Wildlife Services agents have tried to deal with the goose problem. In 1995, Wildlife Services agents began egg addling, a procedure in which they remove adult birds from their nests and cover the eggs with oil. The adult birds continue to sit on the nest for two to three weeks, but the eggs do not hatch since the oil prevents respiration of the developing embryo. This exacting operation is necessary, rather than just removing and destroying eggs, because geese are very determined parents. If their eggs are stolen or damaged, they will immediately build a new nest and lay new eggs. And they will do this up to four times in a single nesting season. Each female goose produces 4-7 babies per year.
In addition to relocation programs and egg addling, Wildlife Services agents have tried scaring birds away with Mylar strips and various landscape alterations meant to make recreation areas less attractive to geese. Despite all of these efforts, there is an estimated 14.5 percent annual increase in the Canada goose population in Seattle, Linnell says.
| For more information: |
|
Give Geese A Chance 206-617-2634 Humane Society of the United States www.hsus.org (206) 526-0949 USDA Wildlife Services 720 O'Leary NW Olympia, WA 98502 (Write for information on urban geese problem) |
Three years ago members of the Waterfowl Management Committee decided on the final solution for the Puget Sound region; they asked the USDA Wildlife Services to round up and kill as many birds as necessary to bring the population to an "acceptable" number.
After having tried numerous measures to control the geese population, Seattle Parks and Recreation Department asked the USDA Wildlife Services to kill geese in Seattle parks.
Parks communications manager Dewey Potter says that animal rights activists have launched an e-mail campaign asking Parks and Recreation to stop the gassing. "About 60 percent of the e-mails are from out of town," she says. She says they will have no impact on the geese killing program.
"We have to put the people above the birds," she says. "That's just our responsibility."
Not all the members of the Waterfowl Management Committee are choosing to have birds killed on their property. Elaine Kraft, spokesperson for King County Parks, says that despite their membership in the Waterfowl Management Committee, no gassings are going on in the county parks.
Susan Stolzfus, speaking for Seattle Public Utilities, says now that the city will soon be covering all reservoirs, "I can't imagine there will be any problem with water quality and waterfowl." She says she's going to ask top administrators at Seattle Public Utilities if there is still a need to be a member of the Waterfowl Committee.
Hunts Point, a Lake Washington waterfront town with fewer than 400 residents almost started goose killing last year. Give Geese a Chance (then known as "The Goose People") sent letters to every household asking residents to use alternative methods of geese control and then also demonstrated against killing geese every morning at the town's freeway entrance at rush hour. Hunts Point mayor Jack McKenzie dropped the idea of calling in the USDA to gas geese.
Alternatives to the Gas Chamber
"Canadians don't kill geese at all," says John Hadidian, Ph.D., the director of the HSUS Urban Wildlife Program. "On the Toronto waterfront, they round them up and take them out to the country." And, throughout the U.S., Hadidian says, there are cities and towns that have found alternative methods for goose population control.
One of the oldest and most successful programs is in the Detroit area. The Humane Society of the U.S., the Detroit Zoo, and the Michigan Humane Society all worked together to create a successful egg addling program.
Egg addling also worked in Rockford, Illinois, along seven miles of riverfront in the city. Jan Herbert, director of the Parks Department's Canada Goose Management Program, says that together with three hardworking border collies who scare the geese away from riverfront parks, it has reduced the goose population of 1200-1500 birds to only 200. One reason the program is so successful is that the message of alternative means of geese control has been taught to over 500 public school children who no longer feed the geese and are teaching their parents not to as well.
Such a kind and gentle approach to geese does not seem to be on the agenda for Seattle. Seattle police have arrested protesters for nothing more than trying to scare geese away with a bullhorn. And they didn't allow animal rights activist Jill Cooper to carry out her intended protest of Seattle goose kills by camping on a swim platform at Magnuson Park, displaying a "Give Geese A Chance" banner. The Harbor Patrol police told her she'd be arrested if she stayed on the swim platform, but they did give her an hour to pack up her things and leave.
For an overview of alternative geese population control methods see this Web site: icu.com/geese/nlcontrol.html
Laurel Holliday is a freelance writer and photographer in Seattle.
Reader Comments
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| Nancy Pennington | Jul 05, 2002 | Seattle | |
| If the USDA had done efficient and thorough egg addling, we wouldn't be seeing so many goslings now, who are being gassed by the USDA. There is something appalling about the Seattle Parks Department threatening to close parks for "lack of funds" while they are spending such huge amounts on a useless and cruel campaign of slaughter. The Give Geese a Chance people offered to do this work (for free) in a humane and efficient way. Taxpayers are being forced to fund a barbaric, unapproved method, when an alternate civilized solution is free for the taking. | |||
| MAX BEERUP | Jul 05, 2002 | KANSAS CITY, MO | POLICE DEPT. |
| Jill, Mom and Dad are proud of you, as am I. The idea of scaring the geese off with the use of dogs is a lot better than killing them. I realize they can be a problem due to population, but so can people population. We use the same methiod, we kill each other off in wars. Here in Kansas City, at the zoo, the geese were everywhere because of the food left behind from feeding the zoo animals. They also killed some here but a very few. They used a different methiod here, they prepaired the geese and served them to the shelters for the poor. At least, these geese were used to an advantage and not just destroyed and thrown away. Take care, and in the sign language of the hands crossed over the chest, "LOVE YOU." Max | |||
| Dorene Olson | Jul 07, 2002 | St. Louis, MO | Canada Goose Management |
| I own a Canada Goose Management company and own a Border Collie from the same trainer that Jan Herbert uses. We are having tremendous success in all our programs here and I am ashamed to be a native Seattle-born person when I read of what barbaric measures are being employed there. | |||
| kelly godel | Jul 08, 2002 | BC Canada | |
| It is pretty cowardly and disgusting what the USDA is doing. Obviously they employ the mental prowess of kindergarten students in addressing a problem(though I bet the kindergarten students would have come up with better and more creative solutions). It is clear from examples like this that it is humans that need the "management," not the geese. Ps: Yay! Jill Cooper!!! :) | |||
| Dennis Dionisi | Jul 08, 2002 | Newark, Delaware | Market Development |
| With goose populations continuing to rise in Seattle and elsewhere across our Country, goose management becomes even more critical. There is an on-going need for study and cooperation between private and public sector groups to tailor programs that will benefit humans and geese alike. Using several non-lethal techniques that work in an integrated approach to geese management, including egg addling, border collies, FlightControl repellent and habitat modification, I almost daily witness or hear of existing successful long term goose management programs. Together, we can all make a difference in our communities. | |||
| Margaret | Jul 29, 2003 | Charlotte | student |
| I am absolutely appalled at the killings of these innocent animals. I don't deny that they make a heck of a mess and can be an extreme nuisance. However, at the end of the day, they were here first. If we gas up these geese, aren't we doing the same thing that happened to Jews in Concentration Camps, gassing them to death? I don't care if they are animals. They can't speak, and we are there voice. I think our voice has completely failed them. | |||
| Liorah Wichser | Jul 22, 2004 | Seattle, WA | non-profit |
| It seems that some sort of population control is definitely necessary with these geese. I propose a sort of goose farming approach, using two types of removal methods for the number deemed over an acceptable limit, and leaving a percentage of geese untouched for future generations. After assessing the number of geese each year, a number of overpopulated geese should be established. Then this number should be split between a wilderness relocation program, and a humane goose kill program that uses the bodies for food: 1. a relocation program to take a percentage of the birds to a wilderness location where they would have a more natural chance of survival, including natural predators. This could be done by the Give Geese a Chance Organization and their volunteers. 2. The remaining 50% of the birds should be killed by the USDA. But, their bodies should be used for food and feathers for pillows or down products. These are magnificent large birds and they deserve a humane quick death, and then the honor of having their bodies used for something good. It is appalling and very wasteful that the last kills were burned. The geese could be processed by a local poultry processing plant, and feathers removed by a local down company - perhaps starting a new line of "Seattle Goose Pillows". The geese could be sold or given away to the public - or donated to shelters or other social service organizations. Everyone I've talked to agrees, if we have to kill them, we should not waste them. I'm sure some vegetarians might not like the idea, but if you think about it - it just makes sense. One more thing, I don't like the egg addling program. It is wasteful, sad, and probably is an expensive program to staff. Anyway, through my plan it wouldn't be necessary, because the population would be controlled by the two other methods listed above. | |||
| Dawn | Sep 29, 2005 | Bothell WA | student |
| I agree that the method of Goose Management being used is uphauling. And although it is very easy to let our emotions run wild about the subject, I think we should always focus on a solution. Comparing a goose to a holocaust victim and threatening to kill ("manage") those people who are doing the Goose Management are comments that will most likely perpetuate a problem rather than lend a hand in a solution. Education and funding are the key things to focus on and poor out energies into. Hope I didn't offend. Thanks, Dawn | |||
| Naturesweep | Oct 18, 2005 | Burnaby BC | Goose Maintenace |
| Sorry to see this result by the USDA and Seattle Recreation and Parks. We have been offering the Parks Board a demonstration and or a free trial of our Turf sweeper that is cost effective and very efficient. We've never received a response from the Parks Board and for that matter no recognition from the Humane Society of The US. We have just help the City of Parksville on Beautiful Vancouver Island for the second year in a row win the prestigious "Communities in Bloom". They have numerous geese living on their parkland and with our system have been able to maintain all the feces issues.Not only is it nice that the tourist dollars have increased but it is a great example of living in harmony with the goose. Check us out at our website: www.naturesweep.com and please give us your comments. | |||
| sherry adolphi | Dec 22, 2005 | olympia wa | |
| feed the homeless with them. If it was hunting season they might be targeted. It is riduclous to spend money to euthanize a bird that refuses to migrate. EAt it | |||
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