Petition: Don’t kill Cornwall’s Canada geese!

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Exposing the Big Game

Sign Petition here: https://www.change.org/petitions/randy-clark-don-t-kill-cornwall-s-canada-geese

Don’t kill Cornwall’s Canada geese!

Last summer, USDA Wildlife Services contracted with Cornwall Town Board to kill local geese. They killed approximately 139 in the area – 14 at Rings Pond in Cornwall, 70 in Cornwall-on-Hudson, an adjoining village, and 55 in another Cornwall area. Local residents and animal advocates were devastated and outraged.

As a result of pressure from animal advocates, the Town formed a “Geese Committee” to suggest non-lethal methods of geese control, yet astonishingly the Town Board recently dissolved the Committee with no explanation and no commitment to using non-lethal methods. Local residents are VERY concerned that the Town will hire the USDA to kill the geese by brutally capturing them and sending them to a slaughterhouse as they did last year! This is unacceptable!

PLEASE URGE THE BOARD NOT TO KILL THE GEESE!

Canada geese are beautiful, intelligent birds who mate for life, fiercely protect their eggs and young, and display loyalty for other members of their flock. The methods that USDA Wildlife Services uses to kill geese are controversial and widely understood to be grossly inhumane – during the hottest months of the year flightless geese and goslings are corralled, packed into turkey crates and transported to slaughterhouses or gas chambers.

Killing the geese is not effective – countless examples have demonstrated that roundups and slaughters only clear the area temporarily, as other geese eventually repopulate the vacant desirable habitat.

The unfortunate plan to slaughter geese can be avoided by making a commitment of simple steps, such as cleaning up the grass with machines that pick up goose droppings, and making landscape modifications which hamper access to the pond and prevent geese from colonizing the pond’s surrounding area.

There is no scientific basis that geese dropping pose a threat to human health. Killing the geese is counter to public opinion, not how the residents of Cornwall, NY want tax dollars spent, and a horrid example for children to whom we wish to teach tolerance and co-existence with wildlife.

Killing geese and other birds has proven to be an ineffective approach to preventing collisions with airplanes. “I have not seen where [culling] has been effective as a long-term solution,” said Jim Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board under the Clinton administration. Ron Merritt, a biologist and former Chief for the Air Force’s Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard Team agrees, adding, “Killing 1,000 geese really isn’t going to do anything. If you kill them, nature will fill that vacuum and a new species will pop up in its place.”

Feeding the goose meat to food pantries is not acceptable – it is a ruse designed to spin an act of needless killing into an act of charity, and doing so puts human health at risk. Meat from slaughtered geese has been delivered to food banks with a warning label from the NYS Health Department that it should not be consumed more than twice per month because it may have been exposed to environmental contaminants.

There is no scientific basis that geese dropping pose a threat to human health. Killing the geese is counter to public opinion, not how the residents of Cornwall want tax dollars spent, and a horrid example for children to whom we teach tolerance and co-existence with wildlife. Cleaning goose poop is more humane, and more effective.

PLEASE CONTACT THE TOWN BOARD IN CORNWALL AND URGE THEM TO USE NON-LETHAL METHODS OF GEESE CONTROL. DO NOT LET THE GEESE BE KILLED BY THE USDA AS THEY WERE LAST YEAR DURING MOLTING SEASON. THE BOARD HAS BEEN PRESENTED WITH NUMEROUS WAYS TO CONTROL THE POPULATION – KILLING THEM IS NOT AN OPTION!

Randy Clark, Supervisor: rclark@cornwallny.gov (845) 534-3760

James McGee: mcgeeatlarge@gmail.com

Elizabeth Longinott: elonginott@gmail.com

Helen Bunt: hbunt1@verizon.net

Peter Russell: prussell556@gmail.com

J. Kerry McGuinness: jkerrymcg@aol.com

Cornwall Town Hall Workshop Meeting:

TUES, JUNE 3 – 7pm

Cornwall Town Hall

183 Main St

Cornwall, NY 12518

For further info, contact

Elaine Sloan

elainesloan@nyc.rr.com

(917) 364-6904

Government-funded wolf slaughter continues‏

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Exposing the Big Game

From: Defenders of Wildlife/www.defenders.org

The 23 Idaho wolves shot from a helicopter last month were just the latest in a decades-long trail of carnage and indiscriminate bloodshed. And Idaho Wildlife Services admitted to their plan only after all the wolves were dead.

It has to stop.

Of the literally millions of animals killed in recent years by the Wildlife Services agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wolves are a favored target.

Wolves are killed for the convenience of ranchers and hunters. In most instances, essential non-lethal methods are never tried. And the slaughter is funded in part by you.

From the agency’s own records, an accounting of more than 500 wolves killed in one year alone reads like something from a horror movie:

•64 wolves gunned down from helicopters
•316 killed in foothold traps
•30 killed using neck snares
•37 shot from fixed wing aircraft

These were all deliberate killings. Two more wolves were “accidentally” killed by cyanide poison left for other “target” animals.

Wildlife Services is currently being audited by the USDA Office of the Inspector General. But the killing continues.

Wildlife Services has operated for years as killers for hire serving private and state interests, using cruel and indiscriminate methods, covering up gross errors, and resisting all calls for accountability.

Five Blood-Chilling Facts About Wildlife “Services”

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Exposing the Big Game

Here are five blood-chilling facts about this rogue agency that have come to light in recent years:

•According to their own records, Wildlife Services killed 3,352,378 animals in 2012 alone. Among the victims: wolves, coyotes, beavers, bobcats, great blue herons, and sandhill cranes.
•The agency’s lethal methods are varied and indiscriminate. They include aerial gunning, cyanide gas, leg hold traps, poison, and neck snares.
•Unintended killings are common, and include thousands of endangered and other imperiled species, domestic dogs and other house pets.
•Cover-ups are routine. Former agency hunters have admitted to doctoring records and burying golden eagles caught in neck snares under orders from higher-ups. In Idaho, they even refused to admit to aerial gunning operations until after 23 wolves had been killed!
•This wanton slaughter is funded mostly with federal and state taxpayer dollars. At a time when federal conservation programs are being cut to the bone, these wildlife exterminators provide subsidized services to ranchers and others who request their help and will hire out their killing skills to the states.

Federal agents indiscriminately kill more than three million animals – from endangered species to house pets – every year.

The Wildlife Services agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is currently being audited by the USDA Office of the Inspector General. But the killing continues.

Just last week, Wildlife Services sharpshooters killed 23 wolves from a helicopter in a remote area in Idaho.

“Sportsmen” donate $15,000 to Wildlife “Services”

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Exposing the Big Game

http://ravallirepublic.com/news/local/article_2dcae02a-a419-11e3-83ec-0019bb2963f4.html

By Perry Backus

[While you and I hate Wildlife “Services with a passion…] The Montana Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife recently contributed $15,000 to the federal agency focused on reducing damage to livestock caused by coyotes and wolves.

The sportsmen’s organization made its contribution to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services in hopes the funding will have some residual benefit to ungulate herds, said Keith Kubista, president of the sportsmen’s group.

“We are pleased to be able to participate in this way which results in reducing the burden of government on the taxpayer and at the same time is consistent with our policies and mission,” Kubista said. “Primary among them is to focus our efforts and funds to preserve our rights to hunt, trap and fish and to protect livestock and pets from predation.”

Kubista said the group recognizes the need to help landowners and livestock producers who suffer impacts from predators.

“These management actions by USDAWS which are focused on the removal of coyotes and wolves causing predation on livestock will also minimize the potential for predation on wildlife,” said the group’s press release.

Montana Wildlife Services State Director John Steuber views the contribution as a cooperative funding agreement similar to what it shares with livestock organizations, counties and others.

“This one may be a little different from others,” he said. “This sportsmen group apparently wants to show its support for the livestock industry.”

Other sportsmen’s groups – like the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation – have signed cooperative funding agreements in the past.

With federal funding in decline, Steuber said the cooperative funding agreements have played an important role in augmenting the Service’s annual budget.

Steuber said Wildlife Services has evolved quite a lot in the 27 years that he’s spent with it.

“We encourage people to use more non-lethal methods for protecting their livestock from predators,” he said.

As an example, Steuber said the agency is doing a guard dog study in Montana using breeds that aren’t common to the state. The agency is also encouraging people raising chickens in their backyards to use electric fence as a deterrent to bears, he said.

“There are a lot of things that people can do to keep wildlife out of trouble,” he said. “We certainly encourage people to use those.”

____________________________

Wildlife “Services” in action on the Idaho/Montana border:

Psychopath’s-Eye View Of Idaho Aerial Wolf Shooting

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Exposing the Big Game

Nowhere to run. This photo shows how the psychopaths from the Idaho Fish and Game, in cooperation with the USDA Wildlife Services, were able to kill 23 gray wolves from a helicopter near the Idaho-Montana border during February…

If You Love Wolves, Love Elk and Hate Hunting

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Exposing the Big Game

Wolf advocates have known for a long time now that ranching is the nemesis of all things natural and wild, and that if you want to help the wolves, boycott beef, leather, wool, lamb and mutton. But lately hunters like those in the Idaho trophy elk hunting industry have been out to prove that they are a wolf’s gravest threat.

Not only do certain Idahoans want to run wolves out of lands cleared for ranching, they want to eliminate them from the wilderness as well.

They see public lands, such as the Lolo National Forest and the Frank Church wilderness area, as private breeding grounds for elk specimens they love to kill, and they’re not willing to share those specimens with the likes of wolves.

Some wolf lovers respond with hatred for the cows and sheep themselves, and disregard for deer and elk. But wolves need elk and deer to survive, therefore wolf lovers should also be elk and deer lovers and wilderness advocates. Ultimately, a true wolf lover is not only anti-cattle and sheep ranching, but also anti-deer, moose, caribou and elk hunting.

Wolf advocates who are indifferent to ungulates and accepting of hunting and ranching will never see an end to wolf hunting or “control.”

Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson

Idaho kills 23 wolves from helicopter this month in Lolo Zone

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Exposing the Big Game

This article was sent to me with the comment:

“Bastards aerial gunned down 23 wolves those fuckers

How is this going to end Jim

I feel so sad

And hateful.”

…To which I answered: It will end when the human race or finally grows a conscience or goes extinct , whichever comes first.

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/outdoors/2014/feb/28/idaho-kills-23-wolves-month-lolo-zone/

by Rich

Feb. 28, 2014 3:36 p.m. • 12 comments

PREDATORS — Idaho Fish and Game, in cooperation with the USDA Wildlife Services, killed 23 gray wolves from a helicopter near the Idaho-Montana border during February in an effort to relieve predation on the struggling elk herds in the remote Lolo Zone.

The agency said in a just-issued media release that the wolf-control effort has been completed.

“The action is consistent with Idaho’s predation management plan for the Lolo elk zone, where predation is the major reason elk population numbers are considerably below management objectives,” the agency said in the release.

In addition to the animals killed in this control action, 17 wolves have been taken by hunters and trappers in the Lolo zone during the 2013-14 season – 7 by hunting and 10 by trapping, officials said.

The trapping season ends March 31, the hunting season ends June 30.

Fish and Game estimates there were 75 -100 wolves in the Lolo zone at the start of the 2013 hunting season with additional animals crossing back and forth between Idaho and Montana and from other Idaho elk zones. Officials said their goal is to reduce that Lolo zone wolf population by 70 percent.

The Lolo elk population has declined from 16,000 elk in 1989 to roughly 2,100 elk in 2010, when Fish and Game last surveyed the zone.

The Lolo predation management plan is posted on the Fish and Game website.

This is the sixth agency control action taken in Lolo zone during the last four years. A total of 25 wolves were taken in the previous five actions.

Fish and Game officials say they authorize control actions where wolves are causing conflicts with people or domestic animals, or are a significant factor in prey population declines. Such control actions are consistent with Idaho’s 2002 Wolf Conservation and Management Plan approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Idaho Legislature, they say.

Interview on EXPOSED: The U.S. Secret War on Wildlife with Brooks Fahy

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Exposing the Big Game

http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/76044/exposed-the-us-secret-war-on-wildlife-with-brooks-fahy

February 24, 2014

Hosted by Eli Weiss

Wildlife Services-a barbaric, wasteful and misnamed agency within the US Department of Agriculture, has been having their way for almost a century, our government’s secret war on wildlife has been killing millions of native predators and birds as well as maiming, poisoning, and brutalizing countless non-targeted and endangered species, along with quite a few pets and seriously injuring people. Brooks Fahy, the man behind Predator Defense and the landmark film, “EXPOSED”, brings three former federal agents and a Congressman who blow the whistle on the atrocities committed under the guise of problem animal control, and proving Wildlife Services for what it really is: A barbaric, unaccountable, government sanctioned, out-of-control wildlife killing machine funded on our dime, which apparently thinks they will continue getting away with it. But, we can tell Congress to defund Wildlife Services, and after this program, you will.

http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/76044/exposed-the-us-secret-war-on-wildlife-with-brooks-fahy

First the Good News: Wildlife Services’ Plane Crashes

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Exposing the Big Game

…The bad news? The aerial coyote-killers on board survived.

[True to form, the anthropocentric media makes no mention that while “conducting aerial operations” the Wildlife “Services” agents were shooting coyotes from their plane.]

http://www.sheridancountyjournalstar.net/news/item/2259-crew-members-okay-after-plane-crash

Two crew members with the USDA-Wildlife Services escaped with only bumps and bruises Wednesday, February 12, when their plane, a government owned “Super Cub” crashed south of Gordon.

The pair were returning from western Box Butte County where they had been conducting aerial operations. Approximately nine miles out the plane’s engine started acting up and losing power. They coaxed the plane along until at five miles out the engine quit.

The pilot, Gregg Alan, from Ray, Colorado, was able to land the plane on the highway at which time it was hit with a gust of wind which caused the plane to skid off the road, hitting a power pole and two fence posts before coming to a stop.

Area rancher Paul Simmons saw the accident and gave the two a ride to town. Crew member Randy Benben, of Gordon, was treated at Gordon Memorial for back and hip pain. The plane sustained major damage and the accident is still being investigated by the Aviation Training and Operation Center (ATOC) of Cedar City Utah and the FAA.

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