Federal Permits Issued to Kill at least 10,000 Birds of about 100 Species
Across NY State

1,250 Canada Geese Permitted to be Killed in LI State Parks and Parkways
Over 8,000 birds in about 100 species targeted by the federal 'Wildlife Services' agency,
including shore birds (egrets, mergansers, mallards, etc.),
backyard birds (sparrows, cardinals, woodpeckers, owls, etc.) and rural birds (hawks, osprey, ravens, etc.)

Download Info Flier

Vivid news article about the permits in "Animal NY" web culture-journal.

LION Nature Group apears to take ownership of LI issue Here

In Westchester, Kiley Blackman of Animal Defenders of Westchester and Westchester4Geese has taken some valuable action on the permits -- and many other geese and animal issues as well.

East Hills, 7/10/13 -- Update on Bird Killing Permits -- We have spoken with or left messages for representatives of all the permittees, and several have given us some statements of what they are doing:

• the USDA (Martin Lowney) claimed that they do not typically kill anywhere near the number of birds specified in the permits;
• a wildlife specialist hired by Leisure Village in Ridge, LI (Mike Caggiano) said they have shot four geese so far this year;
• a representative of SUNY Stony Brook (Gary Kaczmarczyk) said they have not killed any geese and do not plan to do so;
• Rechler Equity Management (Mark O'Loughlin) said they did not kill any geese and will let their permit lapse;
• Fisher's Island Club (Paul Giles) said they DO kill geese every year to protect their golf course and golfers, and have not yet heard from their agent how many are being killed;
• the State Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation said in late June they "currently" had no plans for any geese killings in their LI parks, but were still actively evaluating their plans for Hempstead Lake State Park, which they said is near enough to JFK airport to be a safety concern.

After weeks of relative inaction, one of the mainstream animal rights groups that stood prominently in May in the successful campaign to deter the Town of North Hempstead from killing 600 geese finally took an active stand and emailed its members to fight the possible killings of geese at Hempstead Lake State Park. They apparently also got some coverage in the local Patch news website.

We have tried for weeks to publicize the permits by speaking with and/or sending several rounds of press releases to Newsday, Blank Slate Media, the Anton community newspaper chain, The New York Times and News12. But none have reported on the permits, to our knowledge! However a very aggressive article was done immediately upon verifying the story by a small general interest culture-website AnimalNewYork.com.

We have also fully informed, and asked for assistance in publicity and organizing demonstrations mainstream groups GoosewatchNYC, Friends of Animals, In Defense of Animals, and Long Island Orchestrating for Nature (LION) a/k/a HumaneLongIsland.com. None have helped to organize demonstrations or done any demonstrations on their own, to our knowledge, and none have issued press releases to draw attention to the permits, to our knowledge.

LION and Goosewatch included some non-detailed information on their websites or mass-mailings but neither provided an explicit link to our information, and they studiously avoided giving us any credit, which is a small welcome courtesy for diligently uncovering the permits. (Goosewatch said they included a mention on a Scribd page with the permits we provided them.)

We leave it to the reader to figure out why these organizations chose to provide less than forceful support or acknowledgement; they were informed and urgently solicited for help for a full month regarding the effort to obtain the additional killing permits we suspected to exist; they were repeatedly asked and urged to get involved.

We also sent an email to the National Audubon Society chief scientist, as suggested by one person, but they did not reply.

On a related note, we revised the Wikipedia page devoted to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 to correct the wrong impression in the original article that the birds listed were generally fully protected; we described the generous waivers from protection we obtained from the Fish and Wildlife Services, and linked to the article written in Animal New York (above) on the USDA mass-permit issued for NY State.

Additional description and links

Sign the online petitions telling Gov. Cuomo to stop the killings at Change.org and Petitionsite

Details of Permits and Press Release Click Here.

See the actual federal permits as disclosed after a Freedom of Information request and appeal.

Killings are planned on both public and private lands, including 10 State Parks on LI (Jones Beach, Bethpage, Bayard Arboretum, Connetquot, etc.); Colonial Springs Golf Course in E. Farmingdale (100 geese); 1111 Marcus Ave in Lake Success (200 geese); Cedar Creek Sewage Plant, Wantagh (85 Gull and Geese nests); Rechler Equity Management, Melville (25 geese), Swan Lake Golf Corp., Manorville (40 geese), etc. (See Press Release, above, for full detailed list.)

Killings at SUNY Stony Brook (75 geese) and Old W estbury Gardens (300 geese) were planned last year according to the permits.

Contact Richard Brummel to assist in opposing the actions.
Call (516) 669-1741,  Email rbrummel[at]att[dot]net.
Time is very short because geese roundups are likely underway already.

Thanks to Kiley Blackman
of Animal Defense of Westchester/Westchester4Geese and others who wish to remain unnamed for welcome assistance.

Earlier Announcement

East Hills, 6/20/13 -- Bird-killing permits released Friday by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveal numerous previously-unpublicized plans to kill geese and other birds across New York State.

Among the surprising Canada goose and other planned roundups are 1,250 Canada geese potentially to be killed in 10 state parks across Long Island, including Jones Beach, Bethpage, Heckscher, Sunken Meadow, and Bayard Cutting Arboretum state parks.

Across New York State, permits were issued to the US Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services agency to kill 5,000 Canada geese and 3,430 other birds. They include 79 (seventy-nine) species of typical suburban, rural, and shore-birds birds like egrets, herons and Ibis, cardinals, sparrows, woodpeckers and ravens, of which 40 each can be killed (totalling 3,160 animals), as well as 9 species of hawks and owls of which 30 can be killed each (totalling 270 animals).

There are also permits to kill 200 geese at an office building at 1111 Marcus Avenue in Lake Success, to kill 100 geese at the Colonial Springs Golf Course in E. Farmingdale, and to kill 40 Canada geese at the Swan Lake Golf Corp. in Manorville.

The killing of 75 Canada geese at Roth Pond at SUNY Stony Brook was scheduled to occur last year, and the school-trip favorite Old Westbury Gardens had a permit to kill 300 Canada geese ending in March.

The unpublicized planned killings by both public and private entities on Long Island were unearthed by environmental activist Richard Brummel (author of planet-in-peril.org), who received a tip from a federal official and on May 29th filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the federal Fish and Wildlife Service.

That agency must issue permits for killings under the "Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918".

With the Canada geese molting season upon us -- at which time Canada goose roundups typically occur -- Mr. Brummel pressed for an “expedited” release of permits granted for Long Island under the federal Freedom of Information law. He argued the information was time-sensitive and likely comprised only a handful of permits. It turned out there were only 13, according to the PDF he was supplied Friday.

The request for expedited service was denied, but after Mr. Brummel filed an appeal last Friday with the Department of the Interior in Washington, the information was soon released. The office of Congressman Steve Israel, Mr. Brummel's representative, made inquiries on Mr. Brummel's behalf in Washington.

Recent planned-killings of Canada geese by municipalities in Westchester and by the town of North Hempstead on Long Island drew strong public controversy that led those government agencies to withdraw the plans.

An article in the Anton News chain by editor in chief John Owens, published after Mr. Brummel disclosed he was seeking the information on unpublicized killings, quoted a private contractor suggesting killings often take place without public notice.

In New York City, a group formed after the unannounced killings of Canada geese in Prospect Park in 2011. That group, GoosewatchNYC, along with Friends of Animals, In Defense of Animals and others is holding a large press and public information event next Wednesday at Columbus Circle at 5 PM to fight the New York City policy of killing geese across the City.

Said Mr Brummel: “I am grateful to all involved that these permits have come to light, but I am concerned that the three-week delay by the Fish and Wildlife Service may have been calculated to conceal the pending roundups until there was no time to prevent them. I am asking that this be looked into”

“In the meantime I hope that pressure can be brought to bear to stop these killings. It is shocking that beyond the intolerance for geese because of their droppings, somehow we now are killings mallard ducks, egrets, owls, woodpeckers, Osprey and other animals that seem to be beautiful parts of nature to me and to almost everyone else I have ever encountered,” Mr. Brummel added.

Tally of Permits

PDF of actual permits

Total Killings Permitted by US Fish and Wildlife Service: 7,200 geese and 3,500 birds

1 -- Republic Airport 1/1/2013 - 12/31/2013, 20 Canada geese, 25 Gulls, Plus open ended authorization for any time “a direct threat to human safety”

2 -- SUNY Stony Brook, Roth Pond, 4/1/2012 - 12/31/2012, Kill up to 75 Canada geese

3 -- Rechler Equity Mgmt LLC, 45 Melville Park Rd, Melville, 10/1/2012 - 9/30/2013, Up to 25 Canada Geese

4 -- US APHIS Wildlife Services, Throughout NY State, 10/1/2012 - 9/30/2013 “injurious situations impacting human health or safety, natural resources, agriculture, public or private property”

5000 Canada Geese
100 Brant
50 Mallards
2 Osprey
40 EACH: 5 species Heron, 3 species Egret,1 species Ibis
40 EACH: 17 species ducks and mergansers
40 EACH: 13 species Sandpipers Coots Gulls vultures, snipe etc.
40 EACH: 13 species Doves cuckoo sapsucker woodpeckers kingfishers etc.
40 EACH: 31 species flycatcher sparrow mockingbird cardinal bunting finch Raven etc.
30 EACH: 2 species of hawks and 7 species of owls
1,105 nests including 5 Osprey nests

5 -- 1111 Marcus Avenue, Lake Success NY, 5/14/2013 - 4/30/2014, 200 Canada Geese

6 -- 10 State Parks on Long Island (incl. Bethpage, Jones Beach, Connetquot, Bayard Arboretum) and Northern State, Wantagh, and Meadowbrook Parkways, 9/1/2012 - 8/31/2013, 1,250 Canada Geese

7 -- Belmont and Saratoga Racetracks, 8/1/2012 to 7/31/2013, 40 Canada Geese each

8 -- Fishers Island Golf Course, 4/1/2013 - 3/31/2013, 70 Canada geese

9 -- Colonial Springs Golf Course East Farmingdale NY, 6/1/2013 - 5/31/2014, 100 Canada geese

10 -- Old Westbury Gardens, 71 Old Westbury Rd, Old Westbury NY, 300 Canada geese, 4/25/2012 - 3/31/2013

11 -- Swan Lake Golf Corp., 388 River Road, Manorville NY, 1/1/2013 - 12/31/2013, 40 Canada Geese

12 -- Nassau County DPW Cedar Creek Sewage Plant, Wantagh, 4/1/2013 - 3/31/2014, 60 nests Gulls -- addle eggs or destroy empty nests, 25 nests Canada Geese -- same

13 -- Leisure Village Association, 402 Bridgewater Dr., Ridge, NY, 9/1/2012 - 8/31/2013, 20 Canada geese

NON-LONG ISLAND PERMITS

14 -- Cape Pond, Town of Wawarsing, Ulster County NY, 1/1/2013 - 12/31/2013, 25 Canada geese

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