In the pre-dawn hours of Friday, July 10, 2020, Denver Parks and Recreation and the USDA Wildlife Services herded Denver’s Canada geese out of the water, corralled them tightly in fences, picked them up by their necks and wings, stuffed them into crates, and trucked them off to be slaughtered. Canada Geese Protection Colorado members and members of the public bore witness to this unnecessary act this morning at Garland Park. While the videos and images below are difficult to look at, and have not been edited for language, we believe it is important for the public to see what is being done with their money, by their government, in their city parks.
The culling of geese in this manner is indiscriminate; separating families of geese. Geese mate for life. This morning, after the round-up, juveniles, (geese born this year) were seen wandering alone, their parents having been taken. Or, in some cases, one mate and one juvenile were left wandering looking for their mate and parent.
Canada Geese Protection Colorado recognizes that there are numerous other, far more critical issues facing our city today, from the Covid-19 pandemic, to the economic disaster caused by it, to the long battle against police brutality and systemic racism, and more. Many of us, individually, fight for these causes and others. At the root of so many of these various problems is a lack of transparency on the part of our city, a lack of any meaningful engagement with the public on issues of common concern, and an ongoing suppression of the public voice. Our city needs to listen to its citizens, whether on this seemingly small issue or on big ones.
There is no reason to kill geese in order to manage their population or clean our parks. Likewise, if the city was concerned with helping those experiencing food insecurity, this is not the best use of Denverite’s tax-payer dollars. We call for Mayor Hancock and Denver Parks and Recreation to be accountable to their own principles of transparency and public engagement, to hear us, and to work with us for humane management of the wildlife we all hold in common.
These are our geese. These are Colorado’s Canada geese. We call on the city to terminate its contract with USDA Wildlife Services and stop killing Canada geese.
Caution: Images and language may be disturbing.
GARLAND PARK ROUND-UP IN PHOTOGRAPHS
Reader: If you have photographs or video to share with us, of the Denver Canada geese cullings, or other tips. please email us to help up build a publicly available document of what the City and County of Denver does not want you to see.
CANADA GEESE PROTECTION COLORADO 
This is just wrong…we encroach into far too much of the territory and habitat of other species, then use eco fascist strategies to ?mange” the consequences.
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The round-up and killing of the Canada geese is an atrocity. We’ve joined Canada Geese Protection Colorado in protesting to Scott Gilmore, executive director of the Denver Dept of Parks & Recreation. Many of our supporters have responded to our request to contact Mr. Gilmore and protest the needless brutality to the geese. Thus far, Mr. Gilmore behaves as if he could not care less about the geese. Most likely, only continuing and increased public outrage and a tourist boycott of Colorado will make a difference.
Karen Davis, President, United Poultry Concerns. http://www.upc-online.org
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Thank you very much, United Poultry Concerns, we are grateful for your awareness and support.
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Thank you to the people out there filming this horrific culling. Being the voice for animals is arduous.
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Thank you for your support of Denver and Colorado’s Canada geese. We appreciate it.
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Such an immoral stance. Please rethink your policy of murdering these innocent animals. There must be something else you can do. Like consulting with expert wildlife scientists.
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We agree! Thank you for your support, hopefully, together, we can change this for the better!
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Thank you!
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That is so sad I hope this is a petition I’m signing. I am from Texas and I LOVE birds I was friends with some geese one time when I saved them from a coyote by chasing the coyote away. I heard them and ran outside and about half of them ran inside they had never been inside before. I whooped and hollered and the coyote ran away none of them got hurt. They were panting and quacking very scared. After that they never tried to sneak a bite on me again and they loved me after that.
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I want this to stop. What’ is wrong with humans? We have forgotten we are part of nature. We have lost our hearts. Killing the geese is killing our innocents.
We must learn that nature without wild life is not nature at all.
Just stop I will be doing what ever I can to stop this bullsh*t
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