Several hundred geese in the New York borough of Brooklyn were exterminated last week after being deemed a hazard to passing aircraft, it has emerged.
Around 400 Canada Geese from Prospect Park were culled by authorities in a bid to prevent a repeat of the Hudson River crash in January 2009, when a US Airways jet made an emergency landing on the waterway after two of the fowl were sucked into its engines.
Staff from the US Department of Agriculture transported the birds to a facility where they were gassed with carbon monoxide, according to a spokesperson. The moulting geese had recently shed feathers, making them less able to fly and therefore easier to gather by the officials.
Local residents mourned the passing of the birds, many of whom had been given nicknames. Their monikers included ‘Target’, who had been shot with a crossbow, and ‘Beaky’, who had lost part of its beak.
Regular birdlife culls are part of an established strategy to thin-out goose populations near
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