Good Morning, Friends,

As First Gentleman of Colorado, I am proud to lend my voice to the cause of advancing the welfare and well-being of all animals. It will therefore come as no surprise that I, like so many across our great State, believe it is necessary to address large-scale lethal management of animals whenever and wherever it occurs.

There are amazing examples of local communities in Colorado leading the way, like Lafayette, recently recognized by Environment for the Americas for educating citizens about the importance of conserving birds at a time when America has seen a 30% decline in populations since the 1970s. Lafayette provides a great example of the kind of forward-thinking approach to urban wildlife management that we should embrace, but there is plenty of room for improvement.

In 2019, the City and County of Denver rounded-up and culled ~1,600 Canada Geese across a number of its municipal parks. Despite a yearlong campaign by Denver voters to appeal this decision, Denver Parks and Recreation continued its program this year, killing ~500 more Canada Geese in the month of July.

Needless to say, I do not support this strategy, and I have spent the last year consulting respected wildlife biologists who assure me that year-to-year culling of urban wildlife is costly to taxpayers, scientifically ineffective as a long-term solution, and woefully inhumane.

For these reasons, I have been encouraging City of Denver officials to identify and implement better alternatives to manage its Canada Geese.

Last Monday, I met with Denver officials and wildlife biologists to continue this important dialogue. I sincerely hope that by connecting Denver with well-qualified scientific experts, decision-makers will be persuaded to adopt a different approach. I believe these alternative strategies should not include rounding-up and killing Denver’s Canada Geese.

Ultimately, the decision of how best to manage its urban wildlife rests with Denver officials, but I strongly encourage Denver and every city in our great State to exhaust all non-lethal options before ever considering killing animals.