Executioners Sing! New Documents Reveal Full Extent of Park Goose-icide by Stephen Brown - The Brooklyn Paper

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New documents reveal that the massacre of Prospect Park geese (like this guy) was part of a massive operation that may have been the biggest extermination project ever.

The 250 geese and goslings that were massacred in Prospect Park in July were only the tip of the goose-berg, new documents reveal.

Federal agents rounded up a total of 1,676 geese from 19 locations in the city and Nassau County — apparently making last summer’s operation the largest intentional waterfowl extermination in city history.

The birds were thrown into crates and hauled to JFK Airport, where they were gassed, bagged, and discarded, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request. The goose-filled Dumpsters were then hauled to an incinerator in Garden City.

In Prospect Park, the July 8 “culling” was done under cover of darkness — and the records indicate that officials knew their efforts would be controversial.

“JFK ops will also coordinate your arrival each day to avoid any unwanted attention,” Laura Francoeur, the chief wildlife biologist for the Port Authority, wrote in an e-mail explaining protocol for the operation.

Of course, unwanted attention is what the feds got after visitors to Prospect Park noticed that hundreds of molting geese and baby goslings had vanished overnight.

Within days, the truth was revealed: that the animals had been swept up in citywide operation meant to clear the skies of geese — the same waterfowl that caused the crash landing of a US Airways flight in the Hudson River in 2009.

That harrowing incident led federal officials to kill 1,235 geese from sites within five miles of both city airports that year.

But this summer, the radius was expanded to seven miles, though federal officials exceeded that distance when they corralled geese in Prospect Park.

City, state and federal officials insisted that the culling of the goose population — which had grown to around 25,000 in the city — was necessary to reduce risk to aircrafts.

But the wide array of government agencies involved likely did not comprehend the passion of many parkgoers for the Prospect Park waterfowl. Immediately after the culling, hundreds of Brooklynites were outraged, and organized a vigil in memory of the geese.

Later, it was revealed that city officials — concerned about issues of liability — had discussed the possibility of a 30-mile goose kill zone.

And recently Tupper Thomas, Prospect Park’s top administrator,confessed that she was aware that the goose massacre was imminent, but said nothing publicly because she felt it was not her place.

Despite all these revelations, the feds remain tight-lipped about the details of their goose eradication plan, which, records show, could encompass nearly the entire city.

All 19 locations visited by Wildlife Services agents last summer remain a mystery, but documents from the Port Authority — the agency managing the city’s airports — do reveal a few of the sites in addition to Prospect Park:

• In Nassau County, agents exterminated geese in Valley Stream and Hempstead Lake State Park.

• In Brooklyn, agents killed animals at the Fountain Avenue and Penn Avenue landfills.

• In Queens, agents slaughtered geese in Alley Pond Park, Little Neck Bay and Fort Totten.

• Animals on Rikers Island and Randall’s Island were also swept up in the culling.

Some saw the stunning scale of the goose massacre as evidence that the policy needed to change.

“It is certainly the largest waterfowl [massacre] we know of,” said Patrick Kwan, the New York State director of the Humane Society of the United States. “It’s an example of why we need transparency. For 1,600 geese to be killed without New Yorkers knowing what was going on or being able to consider alternatives … it’s not the most effective, efficient or humane method.”

But gassing is the method favored by the city — and it is possible that it will be expanded to include the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge next year.

The chief of resource management at the Gateway National Recreation area, Dave Avrin, said a study was underway to determine how to control the goose population in the area. Previously, Jamaica Bay, which is part of a National Park, was off-limits to Wildlife Services.

“We are going through an Environmental Impact Statement at this time,” said Avrin. “One of the alternatives is to cull them next year, another is not. We’ll determine which one at the end of the process.”

Tupper Knew! Park Administrator Objected to Goose Slaughter - Yet Said Nothing! by Stephen Brown - The Brooklyn Paper

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When they came for the geese, she said nothing.

Prospect Park’s top administrator Tupper Thomas opposed a federal decision to massacre close to 300 Canada geese in her park this summer, but she chose not to cry fowl because the program was orchestrated by Mayor Bloomberg and federal agencies, a spokesman revealed this week.

“Tupper wasn’t the one who gave permission, but she did know [the feds] were coming,” said the spokesman, Eugene Patron. “As for when and what time and how many geese [would be killed] — she was not in the loop.

“Personally, Tupper was not for the culling,” Patron added.

Thomas, who is retiring at the end of the year from running both the Prospect Park Alliance as well as day-to-day operation of the park for the city, faced a barrage of criticism in her silent response to the goose slaughter in July. Nine days after the operation, the under-fire Thomas finally issued a letter addressing the issue, though one that did little to quiet critics.

“A lot of people were angry about this, and she was silent,” said Tony Chiappelloni, the president of FIDO, a dog walkers advocacy group.

Chiappelloni added that the geese massacre had made Thomas’s final year as the boss of Prospect Park a difficult one.

“Look, she put her heart and soul into that park, she’s done a lot — but we didn’t know what was going on [after the slaughter]! I couldn’t say whether she authorized it or not, I didn’t know, I had no idea!”

Patron said that one of Thomas’s last major decisions before she retires from her job early next year will be to define a new wildlife management plan for the park and present it to the public.

“If successful it could be implemented elsewhere,” said Patron, who added, “I’m sure it’ll be called her ‘swan song.’ ”

BREAKING: Feds Kill Hundreds of Prospect Park Geese! by Stephen Brown - The Brooklyn Paper:

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Dead, they’re all dead.

Federal agents slaughtered more than 250 geese and dozens of babies in Prospect Park after corralling the adults and their young into a small pen early Thursday morning, boxing them up, and tossing them in a gas chamber.

The horror-movie-style measure was part of the city’s ongoing effort to exterminate the feathered creatures within a seven-mile radius from both LaGuardia and JFK airports — a radius that was expanded last year to include Prospect Park, putting all its birds in the path of a federally mandated massacre.

Carol Bannerman, a Department of Agriculture spokeswoman, confirmed the grim reaping that federal Wildlife Services staff executed on the fateful morning of July 8.

“Free-ranging waterfowl like this can be gently herded, then individually picked out, put into crates, moved into a nearby location and euthanized using carbon dioxide,” Bannerman said.

She said that the geese were buried, but would not reveal the location of the feathery mass grave.

“In other states [the goose meat] can be donated to food pantries, but that process hasn’t been set up in New York State,” Bannerman noted.

Among the dead include such avian celebrities as Beaky, the adored and deformed goose that was missing the top part of its beak after surviving an encounter with a fish hook; and Target, the resilient goose who not only survived being shot through with an arrow, but mesmerized the borough for days.

Park-goers were crying fowl over the weekend, when several bird lovers gave

The Brooklyn Paper a tour of the crime scene, a mysterious, feather-covered area where the birds had apparently been corralled. Plastic handcuff-like ties were also littering the site.

“It’s like a crime scene that they forgot to clean up,” said Ed Bahlman, a regular park watchdog.

The birds entered the city’s crosshairs after Capt. Sully Sullenberger pulled off the “Miracle on the Hudson” and landed an airplane in the Hudson River after flying into a flock of geese.

This latest episode likely means that the mysterious animal-related violence in Prospect Park has reached its nadir.

First, gory piles of animal entrails were found by the lake. Then, dozens of chicken heads were dumped in the water. As the weather heated up, dead animals began appearing in startling numbers. Around that time, park-goers mourned the death of John Boy, one of the park’s beloved swans.