DEAR WISCONSIN, PLEASE DON’T KILL THE CANADA GEESE, PLEASE LET THEM LIVE
Gandhi said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”.
There is a different way, a better way, a more humane and cost-effective way, to control your Canada Geese population. It might take a little bit of work and results might take a bit longer but saving lives is worth it and the solution is permanent. It is practiced throughout Canada and it does control the geese humanely. Please read https://www.animalalliance.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Goose_Manual-Habitat-Modification.pdf).
To summarize this article, the geese are here because we have recreated their ideal habitat; mowed lawns with long sightlines next to open water. This is not typical of a natural Wisconsin lake area which is why the population growth of geese is a recent phenomenon. If residents continue to create these ideal environments for Canada Geese, the geese will continue to come. The above article describes how the landscape can be modified to make it unattractive to Canada Geese thus solving the problem on a long-term basis without the need to kill the geese every few years.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has approved state wide geese gassing using carbon dioxide. So far as has been determined it is believed that as many as thirty municipalities have applied for the permits to date. Only three locations are publicly known. They are 1) Twin Lakes WI; 2) City of Oconomowoc WI and; 3) Mondovi WI.
Many municipalities in Wisconsin have plans to decrease the Canada Goose population with the help of the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) by gathering the geese along with their babies during the months of June and July and gassing them to death.
The USDA’s abusive round up; dividing the geese from their families, caging them, and gassing them with carbon dioxide, is about to happen anytime now. And it will use taxpayer dollars for its work. The time and location of the USDA’s culls are usually kept secret from tax payers to avoid witnesses. This is wasted tax money with no public oversight. There are more humane and cost-effective methods to control the geese. Experience has shown that other geese will move in into the area after the cull because people have not changed the environment that is attractive to the geese, thus necessitating more tax dollars being used to kill the new geese. It seems our governmental officials are not taking advantage of the knowledge available to resolve their constituents concerns without destroying native, beautiful and useful animals. Instead of educating our citizens on how not to create ideal conditions for the geese, the officials approve culls which will not solve the problem in the in the following years. The only way to permanently solve and eliminate this problem is by habitat modification. It is the people who are creating these conditions that are creating the problem.
After Canada Geese nest, the geese undergo an annual feather molt which is a four-week flightless period when they shed and regrow their outer wing feathers. Molting occurs between mid-June and late July and this is when the USDA kills the Canada Geese, mother, father and babies. It is easy to round them up during this period because the geese usually congregate on ponds or lakes and can’t fly.
Gassing the Geese with carbon dioxide is not humane. Animals that are forced into such gas chambers experience fear and suffocation. This is no way to treat an animal whose primary offense is producing feces. It is inhumane and very sad. The geese travel hundreds of miles northward to favored molting areas not knowing they will be gassed and killed.
The only crime the Canada Geese commit is to poop. Should pooping warrant a death sentence? Many residents / businesses / tourism related entities are upset that the geese are is producing too many feces in areas populated by people. Among the other outrageous allegations being made are that the geese make too much noise, and eat too much grass from the lawns. Instead of handling the situation in a humane manner many are calling for a cheap and quick fix by destroying / gassing the geese, their families (geese have mates for life) and their young.
This death sentence is not only supported by some Wisconsin residents, vacation home owners, businesses, and tourist towns (Wisconsin has a huge tourism industry) but also by many out of state individuals who own vacation home property. Twin Lakes Wi has applied for a permit to have the geese rounded up and 
gassed. The killing is strongly supported by lake front summer home property owners, the vast majority of whom come from Chicago and Chicago suburban areas.
All this killing so certain people can make their Wisconsin lake home look just like their suburban yard in Chicago rather than like a natural Wisconsin lake shore would look.
In the mean time please keep calling and emailing the following people and organizations asking them politely to please consider implementing more humane methods of controlling the geese.
Town of Twin Lakes
Village Hall 262-877-2858
Elected Official Contact Information: All Officials listed were responsible for approving the cull of the Canada Geese
Board Member Phone Number Email Address
President Howard Skinner 262-877-2858 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Trustee Sharon Bower 262-448-1022 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Trustee Tom Connolly 262-877-3580 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Trustee Kevin Fitzgerald 262-208-9772 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Trustee Aaron Karo 262-877-4111 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Trustee Jeremy Knoll 262-206-2324 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Trustee Barbara Andres 262-960-0194 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
City of Oconomowoc
Joe Birbaum - Village President 262-567-5301 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Donald G Weimer - City Administrator 262-567-5301 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
City of Mondovi
Treig E. Pronschinske-Mayor715-926-3866 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Please ask all your friends worldwide and most importantly your Wisconsin friends to contact the above authorities implore them to call off the Canada Geese cull. Let’s all help make and keep Wisconsin humane.
“Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings” – Oscar Hammerstein II
Dear Friends and Supporters,
This is Part III of our 2016 Year-in-Review. Please click HERE to read the full mailer we've sent out, and HERE to watch our hard-hitting year-end video.
We implore you to share this email with all your friends and all those who care about animals. Please let them know that the animals need a hard-working group like SHARK and that we need financial support to keep fighting for them.
Please Click Here to Donate to SHARK so That We May Continue to Fight for Animals!
SHARK Scores Major Victories Against the Philadelphia Gun Club!
Pigeon Shooter’s Lawsuit Dismissed!
SHARK has been fighting against cruel live pigeon shoots held at the notorious Philadelphia Gun Club since late 2009. Over the years we have saved dozens of innocent victims and documented unspeakable cruelty at the club that has changed the way the public looks at pigeon shoots. In retaliation, the wealthy members of the gun club filed federal and state lawsuits against us, to harass and drain our resources.
The federal lawsuit targeted not only SHARK but five of our investigators by name. We contended that the lawsuit was baseless and the federal judge hearing the case agreed! The judge threw out the lawsuit before it went to trial, stating that the charges that we violated federal law were “sheer conjecture” and unsupported by any evidence. This was a legal victory where David stood against Goliath and won!
One of the many victims of the Philadelphia Gun Club that we rescued. Pigeon shoots are killing for the sake of killing with pleasure taken from the spilling of innocent blood
Do you know why the pigeon shooters sued us and no one else? Because SHARK is the only group that has continually shut down pigeon shoots and saved lives. They fear us because they know how effective we are. Indeed, we know that lawsuit was part of a larger effort by the pigeon shooting community to try to stop us from fighting any pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania. We stood up to the pigeon shooting bullies and won!
Even though we just handed the pigeon shooters a commanding defeat in court, they are once again threatening multiple lawsuits against us. They have neither the moral nor legal high ground, but they have money, and they are willing to use that money to harass us and try to hurt us.
On January 30, 2016, SHARK filmed a worker at the Philadelphia Gun Club torturing wounded pigeons used in a live pigeon shoot. We sent our video to the Bensalem Police who, with our help, discovered the torturer was a 17-year-old boy from New Jersey. The torturer was charged with committing animal cruelty to which he plead guilty. This is a historic and long overdue event in the fight against pigeon shoots!
Our mission now, with your help, is to take this victory to the next step and prove that all pigeon shoots in PA violate existing law and should be shut down. This isn’t going to be easy, as pro-pigeon shoot organizations such as the NRA are spending a great deal of time and resources to protect pigeon shooters, but SHARK has never shied away from tough battles to save lives and we won’t do that now either!
Watch THIS video to understand the abject cruelty committed at a pigeon shoot held at the Philadelphia Gun Club, and why we have fought so hard to stop them.
SHARK Exposes the Myth of California’s “Happy Cows
Top: News coverage of SHARK’s campaign to expose the cruelty of California’s dairy farms. Bottom: Dead cows on a dairy farm
According to the California Milk Advisory Dairy Board, their cows live happy lives. SHARK's video showing cows slugging through muck with dead cows piled on top of each other destroyed that myth.
SHARK went to California to document what dairy farms are really like. This was important for cows suffer terribly on dairy farms and the public needs to be aware of the truth, and not have the truth white-washed by false advertising.
The dairy farmers, just like other animal abusers we have encountered, were angry that we were documenting their cruelty. One farm worker drove his Jeep right at us, while a Stanislaus County Sheriff’s deputy watched and did nothing, even after he was asked to do his job. Once again, cruelty and corruption go hand in hand, but it will never deter us from our mission.
Barnyard "Scramble" Cruelty Stopped
2016 was the third year that SHARK sent investigators to the Martinsville Scramble, in Martinsville, Illinois. Although this is still a ridiculous affair, and the cruelty has not completely ended, our pressure, and our documentation, has resulted in a marked reduction in violence and abuse. Children and adults still chase, but no longer jump on or tackle animals. Rabbits and chicks are no longer held by their ears or necks. Piglets are no longer carried upside down by their legs.
Thank to SHARK's hard work, this doesn't happen anymore
While we want to continue to monitor this event, and hope for its ultimate demise, we have come a long way, and simply need to be able to keep up the pressure.
All the victories and ground-breaking campaigns we have shown you in this email, and that we will show you in forthcoming ones, would be impossible if not for your generous support. The truth is, we need that support right now. Our funds are almost gone. There is only enough money to pay for our investigators for a few months, then it’s over.
SHARK has only four full-time investigators who work day and night fighting for animals, and I mean that literally. You will find no more dedicated servants for the animals anywhere and the amount of work we do with so few people humbles me. I’m willing to bet that if you add all of their salaries (I am and have always been unpaid) it will come in under what one top executive of one of the big corporate animal groups rakes in every year. No where else will you find better value for your donation than with SHARK.
I believe in SHARK and our mission. That’s why I implore you to reach out to every one you know, show them what we do, and ask them to help us continue our vital work. I truly appreciate all that you have done for SHARK in the past, and I sincerely hope you will support us so that 2017 may bring even greater victories for the animals we all care about so much.
For the Animals,
Steve Hindi
Founder and President
Please either mail a check to: SHARK at P.O. Box 28 Geneva, IL 60134 or click here to donate online
When we come across animals in need, we don't turn away - we take action. When we saw an injured goose in distress, we rescued her, and named her Cloe. When we saw a family of ducklings fall into a sewer, we worked until we rescued every single one of them and got them back to their mother. Now we need your help so we can continue to fight and save lives, just as we did these animals
When the lakeside residents of three Wisconsin towns. Twin Lakes, Oconomowoc, and Mondovi, decided to kill the geese families that live near them, they didn’t have to use their own money to pay for the killing. No, they got to use yours. By using a United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) taxpayer funded program and a modest contribution from the town’s taxpayer funded budget the owners of lakefront properties in these three communities can get the geese eliminated from their private property at no cost to themselves. Is this what you want your tax dollars spent on? 
