Thanks to your help and our National Goose Protection Coalition, we celebrated key victories for geese in 2023 and mourned losses in several areas. Surfside Beach Club in South Carolina and Foster City in California saved geese largely because of our activist efforts while unfortunately, New Jersey decision-makers opted for cruel goose government gassing despite readily available non-lethal measures.

These Surfside Beach Club goslings are safe!

The Surfside Beach Club HOA took heed after nearly 11,000 In Defense of Animals supporters signed our alert urging it to stop working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services to kill geese and instead implement non-lethal alternatives. Surfside Beach Club geese were spared this year due to public outcry and daily patrolling by goose advocates, but other geese in the region were not as fortunate. According to our goose contacts, the surrounding communities of Deerfield Plantation, South Bay Lakes, Southwood, and The Lakes tragically killed geese so we issued Gander Slander Citations to all of them. 

The National Goose Protection Coalition was thrilled to report another significant victory for Foster City geese in 2023. Dozens of people regularly spoke up at city council meetings and went to our protests for the geese. Foster City ultimately decided to pursue only non-lethal measures this year and last, so we presented them with a Happy Honk award. Nonlethal goose management benefits everyone since it is much cheaper and considerably more effective than killing.

Sadly, our efforts to save geese In New Jersey fell on deaf ears. Decision-makers did not respond to our alert urging more than half a dozen counties to cancel contracts with Wildlife Services to kill geese in partnership with Teterboro Airport. Tragically, the counties of Bergen, Passaic, Morris, Essex, Somerset, Burlington, Mercer, Ocean, and Union brutally killed geese and ignored our coalition’s generous offer of a free consultation with award-winning landscape architect Nancy Minich of NAM Planning & Design to pursue effective non-lethal alternatives like habitat modification.

For 2024, we’ve got a strategy in place to save more geese and we welcome goose volunteers! If you want to join our efforts or suspect geese are in danger in your community, please contact our National Goose Protection Coalition at geese@idausa.org. 

If you’re not sure whether local geese are being “managed” or not, you can set up a Google alert for the word “geese” and your city and a second alert with “geese” and your county to receive notifications by email when articles are published about regional issues with geese. Since these alerts won’t include city council notices, be sure to review your town council’s meeting notes for discussions about “goose management.” Then you can submit a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act(FOIA) for any government goose-killing contracts. 

Find complete instructions and more resources at www.stopgooseabuse.org. If you need advice or help with filing, please reach out to us.

Please support our work to save geese by making a donation today!