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Geese Supporters Flock to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Home to Protest Bird Killing

By DNAinfo Staff on August 10, 2010 11:49am

By Gabriela Resto-Montero

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

UPPER EAST SIDE — All that the protesters gathered across the street from Mayor Michael Bloomberg's private home Monday were saying was give geese a chance.

A crowd of about 45 activists gathered in opposition to recent plans by the Bloomberg administration to reduce the number of Canada geese as a safety precaution against plane and bird collisions.

"The geese that are being destroyed are not a danger to us," said Edita Birnkrant, 33, the New York director for Friends of Animals, who organized the demonstration.

"We demand protection for our wildlife," Birnkrant said.

The number of Canada geese in the city could be reduced to 4,000 from the current population of 20,000 to 25,000, the New York Times reported.

Government attention focused on the geese and their flight migrations after the "Miracle on the Hudson" incident where a gaggle of geese forced Flight 1549 to make an emergency water landing on the river.

Bloomberg, who was at his home for part of the protest, has been very clear about his views on the geese.

"People are not going to stop flying and we have to make a decision," Bloomberg recently told the Wall Street Journal.

"It's geese or human beings—I can tell you where I come out on that," the mayor told the Journal.

But protesters at the demonstration Monday rejected the idea that the geese were a danger at all.

"Mayor Bloomberg seems to think that when it comes to animals the answer is kill, kill, kill," said Theresa Damico, a neighbor of Bloomberg's on East 79th Street.

"Other cities have managed to this without killing," Damico said of controlling the geese population.

Protesters offered alternatives to euthanasia including herding dogs for airports and moving the geese to other habitats.

Geese advocates will next pressure Bloomberg to change his policy in regards to the birds Thursday at a City Hall protest sponsored by the group In Defense of Animals.