For crying out loud, people: STOP FEEDING THE GEESE! Ring's pond is a park, not a petting zoo. The more encouragement they get from people feeding them, the less likely they are to leave. I was and am still in favor of fining people who feed them.

I wonder if these pro geese people would feel the same if the geese added a pound of droppings a day per bird to their front yard? These birds live up to 20 years and females start laying eggs at 3 years old. Potentially they can have at least 60+ geeslings in their life. I have had 3 families with over 16 geese on my property for the last 2-3 years. That's a lot of poop on my shoes and lawn tracker wheels. I don't want to necessarily kill them but meat goes for a good cause.

Put up a couple of large signs explaining that feeding the geese is forbidden, and why, and that anybody who violates that will be fined $100. With the cop shop just a few hundred feet from the flock, there will be plenty of patrol-car traffic and we might finally be able to stop this stupidity.

Then let's see if there's -still- an "overwhelming" negative response from residents. It might be different this time around.

This is absurd. The Chinese eat cats and dogs; Hindus don't eat cows. Yet we, who think we're not only superior but "rational," aren't even consistent. We think we should "protect" nuisance geese and deer, yet we eat (quite intelligent) pigs, not to mention beef, veal, lamb, duck, turkey (presumably as long as it's not "wild") and on and on. Europeans eat -- and our forebears ate -- not only goose, but venison. Any differentiation is purely arbitrary.

If you're a true vegan, I respect your opinion that we ought not eat living things. But, for everybody else, your chicken didn't start life on that styrofoam tray. And have you ever checked where that foie gras came from?

Maybe we ought to start by being as concerned about the well-being of our neighbors as we are about the nuisance wild animals we take such misplaced pride in "protecting."

I agree that we need to stop feeding the geese. We are only encouraging them to stay. Also as someone who loves flying out of Stewart Airport, I'd rather my plane stays in the air and am grateful to the municipalities that are taking the FHA's concerns about the geese seriously.

If you attend the last few meetings, you will hear people saying that they want a HUMANE way in dealing with the geese. We're not saying not to try to do anything to control the geese population; we just don't want them slaughtered for being a "nuisance." The biggest thing to take away from last week's workshop, and I hope this issue will be further addressed, is NOT FEEDING THE GEESE at the pond. We all know we've done it but now we know what the effects are. This is an issue that the new committee should address further. Let's educate Cornwall on the problems with feeding the geese. Hopefully everyone can be happy in the end.

A massive housing development that will shred the fabric of the Cornwall community edges forward and what pulls out people to the Town Board meeting in droves?

Geese.

Second Ted's comment.

If the problem were purely a local one, there are services which can come in with herding dogs to "discourage" the flock from staying. However, if the overall area population has reached the point where aviation safety is an issue, moving the flock a short distance may not be the answer.

There's no doubt, though, that feeding them only attracts more animals to the food source. If we really care about them, we shouldn't lure them into a potentially lethal situation.

As Christine O'Connor has posted, the subject of a humane solution was the key issue brought to the board at the Aug. 6 work session. "Humane" means having, or showing, compassion or benevolence, as opposed to "inhumane" which means cruel.

When the Town and Village boards made the decision (they were neither ordered nor mandated) to invite USDA "Wildlife Services" into the community to corral, crate and transport the geese to a slaughterhouse, they evidently failed to anticipate the intensity of local opposition. They were additionally confronted with more than 2000 signatures on an online petition condemning the action, and with a flood of emails from all over the Hudson Valley, the country and the world. In this era of social media, public officials are "on camera" at all times, so to speak, which makes it even more advisable for them to consider the pulse of the electorate before acting.

This is about the board's initial failure to work in the spirit of partnership with citizens (residents, tax payers, voters, etc.) who are exercising their right to complain. This can happen in conjunction with any issue: a water pipeline, a housing development, schools, roads, emergency services, police, etc. By maintaining a spirit of partnership, elected officials become more accountable to the community they serve.

Tom DiCarrado asked Mr. Quigley and the members of the Town board to agree to "take the lethal option off the table" in addressing the removal of geese. The appointed advisory committee would then review and recommend humane and cost effective methods that are being implemented by other communities. This would be a compassionate solution with accountability.

Lets be realistic about the Canada geese situation in Cornwall. The geese abatement program currently being debated is funded by grant money that the USDA is fortunate enough to be receiving. The program is intended to reduce migrating and feeding Canada geese populations within 5 to 7 miles of aerodrome's across the US and North America. Of all the local townships in orange and Duchess County only Cornwall is providing resistance to the USDA's Canada geese abatement program. Let's remember that geese abatement is a safety measure put in place to ensure that arriving and departing aircraft can make an unobstructed and safe approach or departure to and from the airport. The North American Canada geese population is currently, in fact, at all time highs. When we think of the local Canada geese, we should also think of the many aircraft that depart and arrive at Stewart each and every day, the safety of the aircrew, and the passengers on board. And let's also not forget that only several years ago a commercial airliner, full of passengers, had to make an emergency landing in this very Hudson River due to Canadian geese and around an airport.