Culling Geese to Save Lives

June 16, 2009, 6:12 pm
Dozens Protest Killing of Geese Near Airports
By Rachel Cernansky

Just a few blocks north of Union Square, a crowd gathered outside the headquarters of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Tuesday afternoon to protest New York City’s plan to kill at least 2,000 geese during their molting season, a time when the geese cannot fly. The protesters accused the mayor’s office of planning the action in secret, in conjunction with the federal Agriculture Department and the Port Authority.

The Port Authority brushed off the protest, insisting that the culling was necessary to prevent bird strikes — and adding a rhyme for good measure. “Our responsibility is to think about safety for people before peace for geese,” a Port Authority spokesman, Stephen Sigmund, said.

The authorities announced the plan to kill the geese on Thursday, in response to the bird strike that resulted in the nearly disastrous ditching of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River in January. The first 100 geese were killed on Monday. Read More

Never should the geese hold more importance over the safety of people. Never. The people that were involved in the Hudson River crash would much rather have some geese culled than have to experience that again. Next time we won’t be so lucky, people will die. We have to get our priorities straight in this country. And that includes putting human safety first.