By David Fortier
The Board of Park Commissioners never got to a vote at Wednesday night’s meeting about whether to pursue a geese maintenance program that included euthanizing geese on Veterans Memorial Boulevard and Park and other city properties where geese have become a nuisance.
“I think we should go back and rehash and should look at alternative methods,” said commissioner and former Parks and Rec employee Leonard Lamothe. “It’s nothing a little soap and water can’t handle once in a while.”
The statement received applause and comments from a packed council chambers. More people who could not find seats watched via a screen in a meeting room. More than 80 others Zoomed in. Another 119 sent emails and 40 others called, according to Mayor Jeffrey Caggiano, who is the chair of the Board of Park Commissioners and led the meeting.
“There are other things we can do besides euthanizing them for now,” Lamothe, a 17-year-veteran of Bristol’s Parks and Rec, said. “There are other methods that we didn’t know about. I mean this is a new thing for me and I think it’s a whole new thing for the Park Board.”
Lamothe made his comments following almost 30 speakers, including the mayor and other commission members at the end of the public participation portion of the agenda. A vast majority of the speakers were against instituting the euthanization of geese.
Cynthia Chesky, Jennifer Blanchard and Mike Arashinko speaking against euthanasia of the geese. | Laura Bailey
Veterans Rick Carello, Brian Avery and Dave Carello voicing their concerns about potential public safety hazards. | Laura Bailey
The speakers included veterans of the Armed Forces, animal lovers and animal advocates, frequenters of the boulevard and school-aged children.
A member of the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency (DEEP), Min Huang, was also on hand to provide information and answer questions posed by Caggiano.
“If we were to add in potential lethal measures, our goal is not to actually eliminate the entire population, it is to manage the population,” said Caggiano, before prompting commissioners to share their thoughts after the public participation session.
Referring to an information sheet from DEEP, Caggiano said an abatement program “should include several different lethal and non-lethal techniques and to be successful in the long term must also include some type of lethal removal.”
Both comments were met with murmurs from the audience.
Beginning with Sandra Bogdanski, commissioners followed with comments of their own.
“I am struggling with the plan proposal as it is right now,” she said and suggested a new approach that included three components: cleanup of goose droppings, a habitat modification plan and an educational approach that would include the Bristol School System and classroom instruction.
“I just feel like euthanizing them is just barbaric,” she said. “When it was called a ‘goose holocaust’ that just gutted me. That is what this is in my opinion. And I can’t stand for that.”
That latter remark was met with applause from the audience.
Rather than proceeding to the next commissioner, Caggiano stopped for a brief exchange with Huang, the DEEP representative, about the effectiveness of habitat modification programs.
“So, your recommendation from Connecticut DEEP is that we do these in conjunction (lethal and non-lethal approaches) to get the population in control and manage a population that will survive,” Caggiano said.
Huang said that DEEP would advocate a mix of methods, including lethal ones.
“With the latter, however you decide to do that, whether you hire wildlife services to pick them off slowly,” which Huang never got to finish, since the audience cut him off with jeers.
Commissioner Cynthia Donovan, then, followed this exchange with her comments.
“Our vision,” she said, “is positive public perceptions,” citing the Park Board’s strategic plan, “a commitment to stewardship and conversation, manage city parks and open space to preserve natural resources and parks as an asset for future generations.”
Next, city council liaison Andrew Howe took issue with the term, “holocaust.”
“How could anybody speaking in this room dare compare the holocaust to this issue right now,” he said. “It’s disgusting.”
He continued to point out that the city has spent a lot of money on the boulevard, that the area is not safe for older people, specifically, veterans who have been honored there lately and were in danger of slipping, and that airborne pathogens from dried droppings make the area dangerous for everyone.
Commissioner Robert Lawson thanked the veterans for their service and for being among those addressing the issue in public, which the audience received with loud applause.
He also thanked everyone who spoke, including the DEEP representative.
“This was very educational,” Lawson said. “I had an opinion before this started and I think my opinion has changed quite a bit based off the information. For my money and my two cents, I think we need to look at some alternative solutions and explore them in conjunction together before we move forward with, and I use the term, euthanization.”
He shared having had to put down his own dog, who was very sick, and called the experience a peaceful and fitting one for the circumstances.
“That was a peaceful or humane way to put the dog out of his misery,” he said.
“This isn’t peaceful,” Lawson said, in reference to the proposal, and added, “I think we need to discuss and come to an agreement on several different ways in conjunction and exhaust every other means before we go this route.”
Board of Park Commissioners City Council Liason Andrew Howe, Vice Chair Robert Fiorito and Commissioner Sandra Bogdanski. | Laura Bailey
Board of Park Commissioners Cynthia Donovan, Robert Lawson and Leonard Lamothe. | Laura Bailey
Commissioner Emily Michaud took the opportunity to follow up the sentiment expressed by an earlier speaker, who called the public meeting a great opportunity for the community.
“There are plenty options for us to use and probably will explore,” she said, “but also there are many ways we can all become involved.”
“This is a seemingly small issue compared to the many other things that are happening locally. And I am going to personally ask that you show up, logon, please read.”
Newspapers love the drama, she said.
“We can make many other things as big and just as important,” Michaud said, “so please do that due diligence.”
Vice chairman of the commission Robert Fiorito said he has been involved with discussions about geese on the boulevard for 18 years and he learned more in the meeting about alternatives solutions than in all that time.
“I think it’s incumbent on the board to spend a little more time,” he said. “I don’t know if there is any rush to make a decision tonight to go forward with a plan. But we owe it to the community that we exhaust every possibility–costs, the ability to be successful, different plans–then make a recommendation.”
Of the those who spoke, first Bristol residents and then several participants representing animal advocacy groups from outside the city, were several veterans who said that the geese problem resulted in disrespect for veterans that the boulevard honored and the droppings were not only an eyesore but also carried diseases.
Tim Gamache, Morris “Rippy” Patton and Mayor Jeffrey Caggiano. | Laura Bailey
“This issue comes down to one of two things,” said veteran Tim Gamache. “It’s either public safety or animal cruelty. In my mind, you have to ask yourself, which one takes a higher priority. To me that is an absolute no-brainer.”
However, the overwhelming majority of speakers said that they disagreed with elimination program not only for reasons from an ethical perspective and that it posed problems with Bristol’s image, but also because there were alternatives that had not been tried before turning to the killing of the geese.
Morris “Rippy” Patton thanked the veterans for their service and contributions to Veterans Memorial Boulevard and Park before getting to core of his comments.
“Something that might be getting lost (in this conversation) is how much support you do have and how thankful the community is for that beautiful park that you guys have down there. Please don’t think that we don’t appreciate your efforts.”
He said that he attends veterans’ events there and has conducted and conducts weddings on the boulevard, including his own brother’s wedding.
“We did my brother’s wedding pictures there sitting among a bunch of poop, washed off our shoes and kept it moving,” he said.
It’s a small sacrifice to deal with that down there, “when you honoring what you are honoring,” he said and recalled the visit of the Moving Wall as one of his most memorable moments.
“What I see here is opportunity,” he said, “and I hope this board sees it as well. I’ve been in many city council meetings, many board meetings. To see the community come out the way it has right now, I think, it kind of shows that, not for nothing, those geese are part of the fabric of Bristol.”
The audience applauded.
Left & Center: The crowd at the Wednesday night meeting. Right: Board of Park Commissioners. | Laura Bailey
“There’s that rat race down the boulevard to get to the highway, then all of sudden you have to stop and watch that tiny little family,” he said, calling that moment a “Bristol story” to be remembered looking back later in life.
“To see so many people show up in support of maintaining what is currently our boulevard or at least changing it in a way that at least doesn’t result in the death of all of those geese that we grew up with, gives us an opportunity to strengthen our community,” he concluded.
Nicole Rivard of Friends of Animals suggested farm equipment available for a reasonable investment that would collect geese feces, along with a message to learn to get along with the geese, who will continue to fill vacancies left after geese roundups.
Two minors spoke, one who brought letters against the program from her fourth-grade class against euthanizing the geese, and another who makes frequent trips to the boulevard solely to see the geese and who broke down momentarily as he asked the commission not to kill the geese.
Other speakers talked of alternatives from lawn sprays that they had used themselves to deter geese from destroying their property, habitat modification to address the geese and their natural instincts to protect themselves, and even trying real swans, which are natural enemies of the geese.
Past efforts of the Park System to address the geese issue has included the use of dogs, which involved high costs, the use of fake swans and signage asking people not to feed the geese.
Caggiano, at the end of the meeting, made a request to the board, to bring the issue back again at the next meeting.
“The thing that I will ask all of you is that at our next park board meeting we continue to have this on the agenda to ensure that we are moving this forward,” he said, “as many people that came out tonight to make sure we didn’t euthanize the geese, there are a lot of people, and I think that there is general agreement that our goose population has gotten too big for the boulevard, anyway.”
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