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Sen. Gillibrand files bill to make it easier to kill geese near NY airports
A New York senator is trying to make it easier to kill birds near New York airports that have been blamed for forcing emergency landings such as the so-called "Miracle on the Hudson."
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said an emergency landing by a Delta Airways flight at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport was too similar to the famous 2009 incident in which a U.S. Airways plane was forced to land on the Hudson River after its engines were shut down by a bird strike.
Gillibrand said she was filing legislation to make it easier to remove the birds, which she said were typically Canadian geese from a nearby wildlife refuge.
“We cannot afford to sit back and wait for a catastrophe to occur before cutting through bureaucratic red tape between federal agencies,” Gillibrand said in a statement. “We cannot and should not wait another day to act while public safety is at risk.”
Gilibrand's measure has come under fire from animal-rights groups.
"We cannot allow this destructive bill to pass and set a dangerous precedent that would declare open season on wildlife in refuges that exist to protect them," the New York-based group Friends of Animals said in a blog post on its website, titled "Kill the Idiotic Bill — Not the Geese."
"Air safety will be only improved by focusing on deterring geese and other birds from airports through habitat modification, effective land-use planning and radar detection, not by killing birds," the group said.
Gilibrand's office said her bill would require the geese near JFK airport to be removed completely by Aug. 1.
