Flanders, NJ — The HSUS is praising Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) for calling for the use of humane methods for controlling the resident Canada goose populations on Long Island and in Westchester County.

In letters to the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Sen. Schumer rejected hunting and extermination as methods for dealing with the increase in the Canada goose populations on Long Island and in Westchester County. Schumer asked the USFWS to develop pilot programs incorporating seven non-lethal, humane methods to stabilize goose numbers and resolve conflicts between geese and people.

Barbara Dyer, program coordinator for The HSUS Mid-Atlantic Regional Office, said, “We are so happy that Sen. Schumer recognizes that community based, humane methods are effective. They provide long-term solutions and are an alternative to lethal methods, which trap a community in a continual cycle of killing to keep resident geese numbers down. Sen. Schumer rightly recognizes that many people find this unacceptable.”

Canada geese populations have exploded in many communities around the United States. Once rare due to over-hunting, the birds were reintroduced by federal and state authorities into states where populations had dwindled or disappeared. These geese had no opportunity to learn natural migration patterns and took up permanent residence in the U.S. Today, the mowed grass and meticulously manicured turf of golf courses, parks, and lawns provide abundant food for these geese while artificial ponds provide harborage from predators. Urban and suburban environments have become ideal habitat for geese, enticing them to stay year round and leading to recreational areas and yards impacted by goose excrement.

In his letters to USFWS Director Steve Williams, Schumer calls extermination of geese “unnecessary” and outlines year-long programs that use habitat modification, hazing, interruption of embryo development called egg addling, and community education through use of signs discouraging people from feeding geese as strategies for controlling resident goose numbers. At the end of that period, long-term plans for Long Island and Westchester would be developed with input from participating communities and the USFWS.

“We see Sen. Schumer’s plan as a model for other communities,” said Dyer. “At a time when the USFWS is calling for more killing to deal with the Canada goose problem, we are hoping that communities will follow Sen. Schumer’s lead and choose humane solutions like those that have already proven successful in communities in Michigan, Virginia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Delaware, New Jersey and many other places around the country.”