By Maggie Brasted
Eight men, a pickup truck, a kayak and a van containing a
portable gas chamber arrive at a suburban pond in Olney,
Maryland. It's 7 a.m. on July 1, just three days before
Americans celebrate their Independence Day. The men are not
here to liberate anyone.
Their presence, however, has attracted residents from the
condominiums that overlook the pond, as well as residents from
nearby homes. The residents have a look of shock and horror on
their faces as the men herd the Canada geese into a small,
makeshift pen, where the birds promptly cower in the corner,
seemingly aware of their fate. The birds can't fly away because
it's their molting period, that time when geese grow their new
feathers and cannot fly.
One by one, the geese are lifted out of the pen, honking and
flapping in protest, their elegant black necks contorted into
fearful shapes. The men stolidly push the birds into the van's
gas chamber, where the geese will meet their ignoble end. The
youngest geese are the first to go.
As the gas chamber is filled, onlookers standing several
yards away can hear the geese banging and thumping, trying to
escape. With all the ceremony of taking out the trash, the dead
geese are dumped in plastic bags and piled into the back of the
pickup to make room in the gas chamber for more birds.
It is all over by 9 a.m. Only a handful of geese have
escaped this death sentence. Those lucky survivors benefited
from a dark numbers game. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
permit for this kill set the death count at 100.
View to a Kill
Residents witnessing this slaughter were overwhelmingly
distressed and angry. Their distress and anger stemmed not just
from watching the killings, but from how the decision was made
to order the killings. Residents claim that the board of their
homeowners association and the board's hired professional
management company planned this kill without the residents'
knowledge or input. The board could not be reached for
comment.
In a last-ditch effort to stop the killings, residents
collected signatures to call a special meeting of the
homeowners association board to reopen the lethal decision. As
of midnight on Wednesday, June 30, residents believed they had
enough signatures to call the meeting, but the kill still went
forward on Thursday as planned.
The slaughter went ahead despite the fact that the petition
included the signature of one of the five board members who had
voted for the kill, but changed his mind. Another board member
was ready to talk Thursday morning, too, but these two were not
enough. According to a resident, the three remaining board
members could not be found or, in one case, refused to open her
door when approached.
So why did the board opt to kill 100 peaceful geese? The
birds' droppings dirtied the community walking path.
To its credit, the homeowners association board apparently
did try some alternative approaches,
such as egg addling
and habitat
modification, but their efforts were inadequate or not
enough. The HSUS offered to assist this community to manage the
conflicts between people and Canada geese humanely, but
officials did not respond to this or other offers that would
have spared the geese.
The fact is, the board and management could have adopted
many alternatives, including simply cleaning the paths for a
few weeks while the geese are molting and unable to fly, the
period when the birds are most concentrated at this site.
Asphyxiation Without
Representation
In the end, just three board members (who were unavailable
or refused to hold a special meeting) condemned 100 geese
against the wishes of nearly 200 residents who signed the
petition in this community of 616 homes. On Thursday, as the
slaughter proceeded, the residents who actively worked to stop
the kill had to stand by as two police officers kept them away
from their own community pond and common area.
Near tears, resident Ioana Hance said, "We've been given the
runaround by the management company and board. This is what
happens with our own money when we don't get involved in our
community because five people wanted this done, and they had
[the management company] on their side."
Residents said they only learned about the planned kill
because of a chance remark by a board member just days before
the geese died. However, John Adcock, the trapper who killed
the geese said, "The board approached us over a year ago," and
the management company applied for the federal permit several
months ago.
It's Bad, It's Nationwide
This scene in Maryland is not an isolated one. Similar ones
are played out in communities across the United States; in
fact, more than 1,000 lethal round-ups occur each year,
according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
For example, on the other side of the continent in Seattle,
Washington, more than 5,600 Canada geese were rounded up and
killed between 2000 and 2003, before the mayor and the
superintendent of parks and recreation acceded to demands to
adopt more humane approaches. The killing program brought
protesters out to parks and public meetings, earned the mayor
the "Mayor Goosekill" Award, drew calls for tourists to bypass
Seattle, provoked an ethics complaint against the
superintendent, generated hundreds of calls and e-mails to
local authorities, and ignited a controversy that burned
brighter year after year as the killings continued.
Like in Seattle, the Olney killings occurred despite public
protests. In that way, both cases serve as cautionary tales
about how a few uninformed or intolerant people can ignore or
override the wishes of the majority who want the animals in
their communities treated humanely.
Homeowners associations (HOA) are increasingly common, and
are responsible for more and more suburban property.
Homeowners, who all share ownership of their community's common
property, entrust its management and stewardship to these
associations. Typically, elected association boards rely
heavily on professional management firms for day-to-day
operation and for information and advice on how to fulfill
their responsibilities. Throughout suburban communities built
since the 1970s, HOA boards control numerous stormwater
management ponds and similar semi-natural areas that are homes
to numerous wild animals.
HOA boards are independent and powerful, with little or no
oversight by governments and with broad control over community
common areas. These factors place a heavy responsibility on
residents in HOA-controlled communities to stay informed and
involved in their associations. Many HOA board members are
diligent volunteers who try to act in the best interests of
residents. However, when these independent boards are in the
hands of people who have their own ax to grind or who are
unduly influenced by a hired management company, their
decisions may be out-of-touch with many residents' desire for
an animal-friendly community.
Residents in HOA-controlled communities where Canada geese
use common areas can help the geese—and their communities—avoid
a horrible scene like the one in Olney. In fact, their actions
can affect a wide range of urban wildlife. After all, the
welfare of other animals can also hinge on the decisions of a
HOA board. For example, what happens to squirrels and birds who
are removed from HOA-controlled buildings? Does the board panic
when a fox or raccoon is sighted merely going about her
business and call the trapper?
Individuals can make a difference for wildlife in
their communities by doing the following:
- Staying involved and informed by reading newsletters,
monitoring e-mail listservs or web sites, and talking with
neighbors.
- Asking board candidates about their views and voting in
HOA elections.
- Volunteering to serve on the board or on committees that
influence decisions on animals.
- Proposing a community-wide policy to co-exist with
wildlife, which will guide future board actions towards
animal-friendly decision.
Weak State and Federal
Protections
Individual action is so important. After all, people can't
exactly rely on state and federal agencies to protect wild
birds like Canada geese. While the federal Migratory Bird
Treaty Act does provide some protection, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service can and frequently does issue permits to
property owners, allowing them to kill geese.
In many states, the state wildlife agency has a hand in
these permitting activities. State wildlife agencies and the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service do not consider it their mission
to end round-ups, merely to regulate them. These agencies'
primary responsibilities are to manage hunting, trapping, and
fishing; protect rare, threatened, and endangered species; and
manage habitat for better hunting and for rare species.
Property owners applying for kill permits are asked if they
have taken non-lethal steps to solve their conflicts with
geese. However, agencies do not assure that property owners
have consistently used the most appropriate steps to solve
their conflicts before signing off on a kill permit. Residents
therefore need to work with their communities to protect geese
from round-ups because neither state nor federal agencies
will.
What You Can Do
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is planning to get out of
resident Canada goose management altogether by turning the
permitting process over to states. Until then, people who want
agency officials to require more effective humane methods
before they issue kill permits can write to the following
address:
Chief, Division of Migratory Bird Management
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Department of the Interior
4401 North Fairfax Drive, MBSP-4107
Arlington, VA 22203
Maggie Brasted is the Assistant
Director for the Urban Wildlife Conflict Resolution
Program.
