The next time you see a cat hater spewing misinformation about how cats kill zillions of birds, remind them of the verifiable fact that the US government killed 4 million animals, mostly birds, last year. That number includes tens of thousands of beautiful Canadian geese.
The government’s only criteria for killing appears to be a complaint from someone/anyone describing the birds as a nuisance. And the killing is done in the cruelest of ways, as detailed in this recent story from Youngstown, Ohio.
![Goslings [Image via Wikipedia]](https://yesbiscuit.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/goslings.jpg)
Let’s be clear: these are not fabricated numbers based on junk science like the now debunked cat claims, these are government reported numbers of kills. All done for convenience in the most horrifying manner imaginable. And paid for by American taxpayers. The feds seem to have something in common with local government run “shelters” with regard to convenience killing of animals – and that is not a good thing.
(Thanks Arlene for the link.)
YesBiscuit! 
Did no one think to try ANYTHING else, first? Dogs? Floating plastic gators? Anything?
Nope, let’s wait until they’ve got little babies and then terrify them and suffocate them.
This kind of mentality is disturbing and sinister. It does not bode well for our future.
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This is an AWFUL example of government overreach. I was particularly appalled that the newspaper described the gassing of the geese and their goslings as “humane.”
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This is horrible, and the way it’s spun as humane is truly chilling.
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Another example, showing how killing as a “management” technique is distributed across multiple federal agencies. In this case, the agency is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers:
http://www.care2.com/causes/the-government-wants-to-kill-16000-birds-because-theyre-eating-fish.html
It was interesting to see this part:
“The Audubon Society of Portland called the plan ‘horrific’ and pointed out the corps has already spent millions trying, unsuccessfully, to change bird behavior on the island and is calling for it to completely overhaul its approach to managing birds in the area and to focus instead on the primary causes of salmon decline: dams and habitat loss.”
The Audubon Society of Portland partners with the Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon (http://archive.audubonmagazine.org/letter/letter0911.html), so to me their protest has a weight it wouldn’t have coming from an AS chapter elsewhere.
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Good to see a bird group partnering with a feral cat group. They are both advocating for animals often targeted for extermination. Like feral cats, if you exterminate the bird population from an area, new birds will move in. Killing doesn’t solve any problems.
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I don’t at all agree with gassing them that way. However, I do support the culling method of population control and having the meat given to local food banks. They’re overpopulated in some areas because they’re not being controlled by natural predators which would offer a much less humane death than a shotgun blast.
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I assume 238 more geese will move right into that park, if they haven’t already. It’s obviously a place geese like. If so, then it’s not population control.
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yep
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This is exactly what happens.
My father used to live near a city reservoir and park which had geese – some resident, others visitors during migration. The city culled them every year, with no appreciable drop in population. One year they poisoned every last goose, which worked for all of about two-three months.
So they put up a high chain link fence and nets, which led to wildlife – including geese – getting trapped in the nets and dying of their injuries. Finally they drained and paved the reservoir. That worked. Mind, the neighborhood lost a park and gained an eyesore. But it worked.
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In a bird-related story: Feral peacocks get to run wild. But feral cats? Nope. http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/374551/the-california-town-invaded-by-feral-peacocks/
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