Canada Geese Have Worn Out Their Welcome

After the recent news that New York City purged a park of over 400 Canada geese on the sly, a surprising lack of outrage has cropped up across the internet.  Even at Metafilter, where most users tend to be against killing animals for no reason, sentiment against the geese was running high.

Canada geese are, it must be said, not easy to love.  They have created a problem in our cities which is entirely our doing.  This is not a situation like the gray whale migrating through shipping lanes on its route between Baja and Alaska every year.  This is a situation more like that of rats, who found life in our cities to be amenable, and have decided to stay.

All across America, cities and suburbs have accumulated flocks of non-migrating Canada geese.  These are, like pigeons, year-round residents.  A flock happens to touch down during its migration, and basically never leaves.  Year after year they leave gigantic droppings everywhere, disrupt the ecosystem, and terrorize passers-by.  

Unfortunately, our cities have done an excellent job of pushing predators away.  And there are few predators which are willing to tangle with a Canada goose, anyway.  Geese are huge, and are more than willing to resort to violence.  Sometimes for no apparent reason!

A flock of geese will defend its members.  Even a large and aggressive dog, when faced with five or six angry Canada geese, will likely retreat.  (If it's smart, anyway!)  Every year the flock gets bigger, and better able to defend itself and its goslings against predators.  It's a perfect storm - one which leaves behind turds.  A lot of them.

Goose droppings can constitute a serious health hazard, both for the human public and for the ecosystem.  Goose droppings can foul a pond, causing a bacterial surge which deprives the pond of oxygen, which can kill fish and insects.  Goose droppings are a physical hazard, as well.  There's a reason why "Slick as goose ****" is a folksy saying!

Anyone whose life has overlapped with Canada geese in any way has a horror story to tell.   And anyone who watched the amazing recovery of US Airways Flight 1549 from the Hudson can appreciate the devastation geese can do, even if by accident.  Geese being struck by airplanes in flight is a serious aviation hazard, even though the flock that was struck by "Sully" Sullenberger's plane was a migratory flock, and not one of New York City's resident flocks.

(I'm not sure that non-migratory flocks ever take flight, actually.  Certainly I've never seen it happen.  Why would they fly?  Everything they want is right there in the pond and immediate surroundings.)

Many cities prefer to take a non-lethal course of action.  Not least because killing geese is pretty bad press!  "Egg addling" is promoted by the Humane Society as a humane way of reducing goose populations.  Basically you steal the goose's eggs, kill them, and sneak them back on the nest.  (You can't just remove the eggs, or the goose will lay more.)

Just don't scoop up your town's flock and dump it on the next town over.  That's no way to act neighborly.

Photo credit: Flickr/OZinOH