FoA intervenes to save Canada geese in CT

When the residents of Bristol, Connecticut, asked for Friends of Animals’ assistance in stopping an ill-conceived, draconian plan by the city’s Board of Park Commissioners to round up and kill Canada geese by gassing them because of their droppings around Veterans Memorial Boulevard Park, we sprang into action.

We sent each member of the board and Mayor Jeff Caggiano our Canada Goose Habitat Modification Manual, which we developed decades ago to help people responsible for maintaining urban and suburban parks, corporate campuses, housing developments and other areas with large expanses of shortly mowed lawn adjacent to one or more ponds or lakes.

Complaints about goose droppings, molted feathers and water pollution are common from late June through early August, the roughly four to six weeks when adults molt their flight feathers and are unable to fly.

FoA also testified at the commissioner’s meeting in April that the city doesn’t have a Canada goose problem—is has an attitude problem about cleaning up after wildlife. In addition to speaking in support of some basic habitat modification methods, we opened officials’ eyes to a simple long-term solution—goose poop scooper equipment made by Georgia-based Tow and Collect (www.towandcollect.com).

After about two hours of public comment, many of the commissioners appeared to be swayed and unwilling to vote yes to the killing plan.

“Killing geese would be barbaric. When one of the advocates called the plan a goose Holocaust, it gutted me,” said Commissioner Sandra Bogdanski. “That’s what this is. And I cannot stand behind it.”

“I had an opinion before this started, and my opinion has changed quite a bit based on the information presented, “ said Commissioner Rob Lawson. “Thanks to all the folks that showed up to testify today—this was very educational.

“I think we need to explore alternative solutions together before we move forward with euthanizing the geese,” he added, pointing out that euthanasia is a peaceful, humane end of life for a sick pet. “This plan is not peaceful, it’s not humane.”

Instead of killing the geese, the city decided to use street sweeping machines—already in use to pick up nip bottles and other litter— to help clean the bird droppings and apply for environmental grants to offset costs.

“Knowing that the geese would not be killed this year was a positive development, for sure, but it’s not a victory yet until officials completely abandon the philosophy that there needs to be fewer geese in Bristol,” said Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals. “So we will continue to educate and keep the pressure on to protect the geese.