The pastoral town of Peapack-Gladstone in New Jersey is planning to slaughter around 60 geese for settling and pooping in a public park.
According to officials, the birds’ excrement is creating a health hazard, and the killings are necessary because they are soiling Liberty Park.
The small town, which has previously been criticized for using brutally violent methods to minimize the geese population, has said in a town council meeting it plans to mass execute the dozens of geese in the coming weeks by forcing them into a gas chamber.
“We do hold humans in higher regard than animals,” Mayor Mark Corigliano said at a town meeting on June 6.
“Their [human] health and wellbeing is our responsibility.”
However, the local humans he referenced are voicing their outrage with this decision and have collected 6,000 signatures in an online petition opposing the killings. They have also organized a protest scheduled for June 29 at the Teterboro Airport, where 827 geese were slaughtered by the USDA in 2022 as creating a hazard for aviation.
“They’ll get rid of one flock, which is the most cruel, horrific form of punishment to an animal,” Doreen Frega, a director at Animal Protection League of New Jersey told the Gothamist. “It’s animal cruelty at its highest level. Towns should not do this, because there are so many non-lethal ways in the 21st century.”
According to the nonprofit Humane Society, killing the geese is only a “temporary fix,” and they argue modifying the habitat to deter the birds is the most effective way to get rid of them.
Nancy Minich, a landscape architect who consults the Animal Protection League of New Jersey, described the vegetation around the pond in Liberty Park as “goose candy” in a statement to the Gothamist.
“They have acres of mowed lawn, which is a welcome mat for geese, and then there’s water,” she said. “It’s heaven for geese. It says, ‘geese come over here.’”
The town has signed a nearly $45,000 contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services to eradicate the geese over the next five years at Liberty Park, rejecting advocates’ pleas to use methods to reduce their population that are cheaper, more effective, and don’t require euthanizing.
The town’s mayor and five out of six council members have remained steadfast in their decision despite the widespread backlash and the viable alternatives presented.
