Halt the Unjustified Slaughter of Canada Geese & Mute Swans by Michigan DNR in 2025

Change.org petition

The Issue

On October 10, 2024, in a concerning decision, Governor Whitmer’s Natural Resources Committee voted unanimously to slaughter all Canada geese removed from Michigan lakes in 2025. This decision was met without any concrete scientific evidence justifying such harsh actions. Moreover, the DNR points the finger of blame at overpopulation but readily disregards the mismanagement of the population for the sake of hunting. In fact, the DNR actually gave a Partner in Conservation Award to Joe Wilbur Johnson for not only bringing in trumpeter swan eggs from Alaska but also the RESIDENT Canada goose into Michigan for the sole purpose of hunting. Similar outrageous actions have been targeted toward mute swans, yet another species that has been tremendously affected by these unsound policies.

The DNR and USDA have slaughtered over 8500 mute swans in Michigan. The Mute Swan kill plan needs to be revisited, especially now that the DNR is planning to gas every NATIVE Canada goose that lake associations, businesses, condo complexes, etc., do not want on their property. The DNR acts like they care about our NATIVE wildlife. They slaughter the swans because they claim they are non-native and are invasive to the Canada goose, and yet the Natural Resources Committee just voted on the USDA and DNR plan to slaughter thousands of NATIVE Canada geese, which are also federally protected, whatever that means. If the swans are so invasive to the geese, why are there so many geese rounded up every year on lakes with swans on them? The swans should have chased them all off if what the DNR is claiming is true.

In addition to signing this petition, please contact Governor Gretchen Whitmer directly and ask her to stop these slaughters and ask for the Michigan based studies and science that warrant these killings: https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/contact

Detroit Free Press article:
Nuisance Canada geese get killed, not moved, under new DNR guidelines

A Canada goose in a pond in Madison Heights, MI on July 2, 2020.
Rodney Coleman-Robinson, Detroit Free Press