"What they're doing in New Jersey is totally unnecessary. It's based upon a lack of understanding of wildlife behavior," said David Feld, director of GeesePeace, which helps communities remove the birds using "nonlethal" methods.
Efforts to cull geese this year have received more attention than in the past, especially in New York City. In January, US Airways Flight 1549 had to execute an emergency landing on the Hudson River after being struck by geese.
In response, the city has asked the USDA's Wildlife Services to capture and kill at least 2,000 geese at city parks and sites within five miles of airports, angering protesters who gathered outside the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Tuesday.
Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, which helped organize the protest, called the culling of residential geese in the hope of improving flight safety a "mean-spirited, inane idea." She pointed to a study by Smithsonian scientists that concluded the geese that hit Flight 1549 were migratory.
"We recognize that there can be people who don't agree with it," USDA spokeswoman Carol Bannerman said. "It would be nice if there were somewhere to take the geese to . . . but in New Jersey, especially, there's not a place to put them."
The USDA doubled the geese it removed in the state from 1,000 in 2006 to 2,000 in 2008, Bannerman said. This year, 20 locations in nine counties, including Burlington, Mercer, and Salem, have requested geese removal.
Officials choose this time of year because geese are molting, or shedding their feathers, and cannot fly.
A primary alternative touted by Feld is pouring corn oil on goose eggs, which prevents them from hatching. This process, he argues, is more effective at stopping the population problem at the source and can discourage the goose who laid the egg from returning.
