Bayside activist says ‘no’ to geese roundup
Resident calls for action and awareness after USDA Wildlife Services put geese in cages
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
Fort Totten Park is a
beautiful peaceful refuge for
Jennifer Heinsman as she is
roller-skating or taking a walk
down to the bay in the early
morning hours. However, that
bliss has since changed for
Heinsman after witnessing the
rounding up of geese stuffed
into orange crates by USDA
Wildlife Services officials on
June 24.
A frequent visitor of the
park at least three times a
week, Heinsman said she will
no longer be returning to
Fort Totten.
“It was one of the most
horrific things I have
experienced,” said Heinsman,
who has been living in the
Bayside community for over
25 years. “I was so livid and
appalled. There were multiple
geese crammed into the crate
and the geese were petrified
and flailing; they were
severely distressed.”
While skating in the
parking lot at around 6 a.m.
before heading out to the trail,
Heinsman said she noticed
three USDA trucks, a police
truck, another from the Parks
Department and kayakers in
the water.
When Heinsman
approached one of the six
men, she was told that the
geese were being taken to the
processing center to be fed to
the homeless.
“I said, ‘Who’s doing this?’
and he told me, ‘This is JFK
Airport.’ In my mind I’m
thinking, they’re rounding
up the geese for slaughter,”
said Heinsman, a licensed
veterinarian for 22 years who
has seen abuse and neglect
of animals, describing the
crating and transporting of the
geese cruel and inhumane.
The continuous removal of
geese throughout city parks
and areas around the local
airports began as an effort to
prevent accidents such as the
2009 “Miracle on the Hudson,”
in which U.S. Airways Flight
1549 out of LaGuardia struck
Canadian geese during
takeoff, blowing out the plane’s
engines. The pilot, Captain
Chesley Sullenberger, was
forced to make an emergency
landing on the Hudson River;
no one was killed.
The geese were DNA
Photos courtesy of Jennifer Heinsman
tested by the Smithsonian
Institute and determined
to be migratory birds from
northern Canada, flying at
3,000 feet altitude when the
infamous incident occurred.
Nevertheless, thousands
of local geese which never
migrate or fly high have been
killed in New York City every
summer by USDA Wildlife
Services, according to David
Karopkin, founder and former
director of GooseWatch
NYC, a group formed in 2011
following the removal of geese
at Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
Canadian geese have
also been removed from the
Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge,
a swamp marshland off the
coast of Queens, according to
Karopkin, who says the USDA
has a contract with the Port
Authority of NY/NJ to access
city parks and remove the
geese. The geese are then taken
to a facility slaughterhouse
located in upstate New York,
said Karopkin.
The FAA Wildlife Strike
Database reported its largest
margin (25 percent) between
2008 (7,602) and 2009 (9,474) and
has continued increasing to
date. On average, 39 strikes are
reported daily — 97 percent are
birds, 2 percent are terrestrial
mammals and 1 percent are
bats and reptiles. The online
database contains over 209,000
strike reports between Jan. 1,
1990 and Nov. 30, 2018.
The Port Authority works
diligently to develop mitigation
plans to manage risk and
minimize the possibility
of potentially devastating
bird strikes, according to
the department.
In an email to QNS, the Port
Authority said the agency is
not just focused on the safety
of the traveling public, but
also the safety of communities
that surround its facilities,
specifically the airports where
planes soar above densely
populated areas.
The agency’s Airport
Wildlife Hazard Management
Plan is in compliance
with the Federal Aviation
A d m i n i s t r a t i o n ’ s
requirements and
recommendations for
managing wildlife on and
off-airport.
“To increase safety of
the approach and departure
airspace, the Port Authority
also coordinates with the
USDA and the city to mitigate
wildlife hazards within a fivemile
radius of the airport,” the
Port Authority said.
Following the plane crash
in the Hudson River, the
National Transportation
of Aviation Safety Board
issued a comprehensive 200-
page report with 33 specific
recommendations to the FAA
to prevent bird strikes and
to enable pilots and other
aviation officials to be able
to respond to bird strikes,
said Karopkin.
Instead of removing
and slaughtering the geese,
Karopkin said there are other
alternatives such as adopting
radar technology at airports
to monitor migrating birds
in the area. Upon hearing the
news of the geese roundup at
Fort Totten Park by Heinsman,
Karopkin became upset,
he said.
“I would hope to live in a
city that can coexist with all
of the wildlife that we’re so
fortunate to share space with,”
said Karopkin. “We have 8
million New Yorkers with an
extremely dense environment.
We’re talking about a small
number of animals and
it’s tragic that our elected
officials and government have
determined the need to be
reduced and exterminated.”
Heinsman suggested
relocating the geese
elsewhere and has made
phone calls to various animal
rights organizations about
the incident.
“I understand the safety.
I’m for the safety of humans,
but birds and geese, it’s their
God-given right to fly and the
sky is their territory,” said
Heinsman. “Either collect them
or relocate them, or implement
some kind of technology for
the airports. I mean we’re in
Bayside and we’re not even
near the airports. You can’t
assume these geese will take
flights over there.”
Heinsman added, “I just
hope that it can be made more
aware because I truly feel if
more people knew what was
happening, especially in the
Bayside area, that something
could be done because I feel
like not enough is being
done to stop the geese from
being slaughtered.”
Reach reporter Carlotta
Mohamed by email at
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.
com or by phone at (718) 260–4526.
FLUSHING TIMES (USPS#03925) is published weekly by Queens CNG LLC, 41-02 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, NY 11361, (718) 229-0300. The entire contents of this publication are copyright 2018. All rights reserved.
The newspaper will not be liable for errors appearing in any advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Periodicals postage paid at Flushing, N.Y. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the
FLUSHING TIMES C/O Queens CNG LLC 41-02 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, N.Y. 11361
2 TIMESLEDGER, JULY 5-11, 2019 QNS.COM
/QNS.COM
link
