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Goldengrain- I've been trying to rep you but CD swears I have done it recently and must pass that around. Well, they are wrong so this is the best I can do. REP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you, I will consider myself repped. Same to you, too.
We think we know the people who surround us, and yet on some of these forums on a topic such as this you meet those with such hard hearts. It's as though they have forgotten their humanity, left it aside. I wonder what makes us feel so apart from the rest of the natural world?
We all have different opinions and different approaches. It depends on how much land, how many geese and how much unpleasant interaction/problems there are. No, especially within city limits one cannot just shoot them. Canadian Geese can be removed by companies approved by USDA.
Yes, it can be an awesome site to see 100 of them fly in formation. It is not the case when they decided to camp out in front yards for smaller homes.
When we had reports of geese defending their nests by attacking walkers and especially strollers (?) it was time to make decisions. They were baited after breeding season by "mother goose" with bread for several days on land fairly far off the lake. Then the bait was drugged and a number of them were relocated. We had to do this every couple of years to keep the population to a mangeable size. It was suggested to bring in swans but HOA opted against that considering that they can get rather agressive particullarly during breeding season and a lot of residents had smaller children.
I have no problem with relocation. However, they are geese and they fly. LOL What's to stop them from returning? I wonder if you were fed a line when told they were relocated.
Gassing is a horrible, painful death. These geese are rounded up by nets, they suffer broken legs, wings and necks in the panic and transport, then they suffer a slow, torturous death. Why do you think most shelters in the US no longer gas our companion animals? It's 150% INHUMANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I guess I'm one of the evil people. I don't like their poop, and it seems these geese don't have any natural enemies. I guess you could try to shoot them for food, but I've read the meat tastes terrible.
In lieu of the gassing, maybe there's another way to get rid of them...
Just wondering what are people's thoughts on this. What I find mostly is the round up of geese near airports, using that as a reason. We are in a hoa type community, not gated or anything, just hoa governed. The majority of the board likes the handy idea of geese culling or, as they are calling it, geese round up.
We have lakes around so, hey, water = geese. What grown up doesn't know that going in.
We are in a fairly temperate area so, hey, nice weather is why people stay here and move here. Why not the same with wild life.
I feel the term 'round up' is sugar coating and therefore there is something being sugar coated. Not a child who needs sugar coating, I am calling the process in my mind the hours long torture and then tortured death of geese. I say 'hours long' only because I don't see our community bringing in a portable gas chamber and gassing the geese fairly immediately on site.
What are anyone else's thoughts or sound info on this?
It's horrible - cruel and inhumane, regardless of how it's done. The HOA builds a goose magnet, and then when geese come, they kill them. And there are plenty of ways to naturally control the population of geese - i.e. planting tall grasses around the lake (which naturally grow there in real lakes and ponds) so that geese are not predator-free and not quite so comfortable, and not feeding the geese or allowing anyone else to feed them. I live on a lake that never has more than a dozen or so geese, and it's because it has those things to keep the geese in balance. We don't have to do any "culling."
A few years ago an HOA was doing that and a group I was working with managed to stop it. It's actually illegal to harm those geese without special permission from fish and wildlife, so I would first want to know if they bothered to get it. If not, the fine is huge. If they do have it, or it's fish and wildlife doing the "culling," there are more humane ways. For one, there are some working dogs that will basically harrass the geese into leaving. It's still not preferable to simply modifying the lake so it doesn't actively produce an overpopulation of geese, but it's better than killing them.
I respectfully say that the ease with which we dispose of anything living does not speak well of us. In the end, we often find how wrong we were. Whether it's removing brush or cattails by water and then wondering why in the world we have all this erosion of the land and silt in the water; without research applying stronger weedkill than is called for and then being shocked at all the wildlife that died or left and all the pets and people who became ill.
I don't mind so much the oiling of the eggs...by permit. We did mind the couple who rowed to that little island , got out and picked up nests and threw them in the water and left for their end of the community, leaving our end of the community, who didn't mind the geese and ducks, to listen to the mournful cries for days and nights as they searched the water for their nests and their eggs.
Something put on the lake path area as a deterent to geese being on the grass is one thing. The weedkill in the water that time that also acted to make those inlets anathema to the geese...and ran off the more sensitive ducks...so that they never land there anymore is worse. But worst of all is that once the geese moved off the land....then off the one end of the lake toward uplake adding to the number of geese already there, the people there now want them killed. But, hey, we and the geese were happy with them at our end.
If there were more forethought, more planning by talking with and listening to others, more creativity and patience and less immediately kicking out of the way something that a person doesn't like things might be a lot better all around.
It's hard to believe that humans nearly hunted Canada Geese to extinction in the early 1900s. They've made a remarkable comeback and we should be thankful that they're still around.
Now, however, the problem is that people are creating the very habitat that attracts geese--acres and acres of lawn--and then complaining when Canada Geese stick around to munch on the delectable short grass. Although it may be water that initially attracts geese to a particular location, it's really the lawns that will keep them around. Replacing lawn with a taller meadow habitat will virtually eliminate the problem of geese sticking around. A wildflower meadow is also so much more attractive a landscape, especially when trails are mowed so that people can enjoy the butterflies, birds and other wildlife that will be attracted to the site. Of course, a few geese might also welcome the mowed trails but, overall, you'll see a great reduction in Canada Geese--without the need to kill them.
Lovely heartfelts posts all, well all that I repped. lol Sorry I dont remember names well enough to post. I had no idea this was being done to those beautiful smart creatures. Why do we as humans, feel we own everything and every bit of ground? We should be called something else, cause human sounds too much like humane, and too many have lost that wonderful quality. I have two huge front room widows that the birdies love to "decorate". I've never once felt they should die because of it. While cleaning it up I just ask them how they get it to go under the eave. lol Thanks all for sharing, esp. the V. formation story.
I respectfully say that the ease with which we dispose of anything living does not speak well of us. In the end, we often find how wrong we were. Whether it's removing brush or cattails by water and then wondering why in the world we have all this erosion of the land and silt in the water; without research applying stronger weedkill than is called for and then being shocked at all the wildlife that died or left and all the pets and people who became ill.
Rep
How a society treats its most vulnerable is a statement on that society.
Killing for convenience or vanity / dominion by violence -- makes us not quite the superior species we think we are. If Mother Nature could speak, do you think she would prefer her domain to be inhabited by more of us or more animals, trees, etc ?
As with so much wildlife; humans created this problem. Without humans; nature would have controlled the population. Nature isn't humane – starvation is a terrible way to go; some will be eaten while still alive. Humans usually try to be humane; unlike nature. Yes; we do have some that glorify in the suffering of others and animals. The idea of gassing geese does not sound humane – but what are the alternatives?
Down through the Lehigh Valley area of PA you can sometimes see flocks of several thousand geese. We also have an airport in that area. Airplanes and geese do not mix. Some diseases, like flu, can also be transported by these wild geese. Plus we all like to eat and do not want to pay higher prices for our food or share it with our wildlife. Many of us enjoy the outdoors and do not want to come home with goose poo.
Nature is about balance. When we tip the scales in one direction; we have to be prepared to rectify the damage we do.
Nature is about balance. When we tip the scales in one direction; we have to be prepared to rectify the damage we do.
Yes, nature is about balance. Unfortunately, the overpopulation of homo sapiens on this planet has destroyed any semblance of balance.
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