#animal welfare #animal cruelty awareness #bird trapping #Immoral treatment #Save the geese
On Thursday August 18th 2022, the Lake Hills Association Board in Fairfield CT, including Beach Reps, voted to move forward with the proposition to wrangle into a pen immature, flightless Canadian Geese that call Samp Mortar Lake their home, and cruelly snuff out their young lives by stuffing them into nets and BREAKING their necks.
By one board member’s account, there are
a mere 125 geese now living on this 17-acre lake. (numbers already reduced by the addling of eggs). The board legitimized this mass slaughter saying it will rid the lake of unwanted feces and stop the messing up of docks and beaches but the facts speak differently. In fact, The Migratory Bird Treaty Act makes the killing of these geese illegal. Not to mention, this cull is needless and immoral.
We, the residents who are strongly opposed to this proposed gruesome cull, believe goose management can be handled humanely with an alternative affordable, viable solution. We refuse to allow the netting of helpless, flightless geese and the subsequent breaking of their necks because certain neighbors don’t like goose droppings and don’t want to clean it. We live on a lake, not a swimming pool. Swimming and using the lake is a privilege dependent on the eco-system, not a right.
Please sign this petition to oppose this inane, inhumane, gruesome, and unheard of practice, performed by a for-profit that does not back its statements with facts/sources. Together, we can find the humane solution and protect our wildlife.
Thank you.
Please see our letter to our Association President, below with details.
To Whom It Concerns (All of us):
We highly encourage you to eliminate consideration of the goose cull program that the association board members approved at the latest meeting.
There are alternative, effective, and humane goose management programs across the nation, including in our area at lakes that are a part of our eco-system. We will list them, below, as well as provide sources (something not included in the presentation by the goose committee). Though the goose committee suggests they have employed these options, there is no proof and many believe these options have not been either a) implemented steadily by all affected and b) even tried. As well, there were volunteers who raised their hand to help with addling eggs (not many of our personal first choice, but something that was also not effectively done this past year).
The idea and proposal to murder wildlife is extremely divisive and will (and already has) created a divide that will deepen in this community, destroying any sense of neighborly relations. Additionally, the optics are deplorable.
Options:
Motion sensor sprinklers
Fencing
Landscaping
Education of harm of feeding
Sound technology
Addling service
Regular goose poop clean-up service
Decoys and deterrents (pinwheels, coyote statues, tails, flags, etc.)
Further, there currently exists no viable communication method to inform all LHA residents of board meetings, times and dates, as well as agendas. This information should be mailed regularly to all constituents. This meeting was not listed on the website, and there is no good reason for it. All members were not present for the vote, which We find inexcusable.
We strongly advise the goose committee to work with the entire LHA community towards addressing the goose dropping issue via scientifically proven and humane measures that are respectful of wildlife and the eco-system. We do not live on a swimming pool—this is a lake, and we must accept and respect all of the wildlife that make it home. To say that goose droppings present a danger of illness is uneducated—no one has come forward with devastating illness due to the geese. Ecology experts that represent our lake agree, as well as residents who have lived here as long as 64 years, that this is unacceptable.
Selectively murdering wildlife is a slippery slope and one that cannot be won. Underwriting an inane murder session (not to mention an extreme amount of money) is not something We are willing to do with our dues. If this passes, Many will refuse to pay dues or live in a “community” that partakes in needless slaughter because certain members are behaving like they live in a sanitized environment and are unable to accept all that comes with lake life.
Only Mother Nature can balance Mother Nature.
Reminder: We are not Mother Nature.
Respectfully,
Lake Hills Association Neighbors OPPOSED to goose committee’s gruesome culling proposal
Source that outline that this is unethical and ineffective:
https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/problem-canada-goose-round-ups
Source that highlights the intelligence and important role of Geese:
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