700 Canadian Geese Captured In NYC Will Be Euthanized To Prevent Crashes At JFK, Laguardia

In April-- after two planes were forced to make emergency landings after birds flew into their engines-- Senator Kristen Gillabrand proposed a bill that would allow the U.S. Department of Agriculture to remove Canada geese from Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in June and July. (In those two months of the year, geese are molting and can't fly.)

Gillibrand's measure passed and on Monday federal officials gathered 700 geese from the Refuge into pens and sent them to poultry farms upstate where they'll be euthanized, their meat sent to food pantries.

Animal activists, of course, are upset. From CBS New York:

“There has not been any incident of a Canada goose from Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge crashing into any airplane from JFK or otherwise,” David Karopkin of GooseWatch NYC told 1010 WINS. “The geese that are at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge are not posing any threat to the aircraft.”

This isn't the first time NYC has exterminated Canada geese en masse. 1,700 geese were killed in New York City in 2010, alone. And in one 2011 incident, the city secretly gassed 250 geese in Prospect Park.