A mother goose and her baby gosling enjoy a free snack near Dows Lake in this file picture taken May 22, 2011. TONY CALDWELL/OTTAWA SUN/QMI AGENCY
Here’s the thing: When you shoo geese from the beach, they go somewhere else.
I asked Orléans Coun. Bob Monette this week if he has received any complaints about the Goosebuster drone, which was deployed at Petrie Island Beach last year. Monette said the only complaints came from people upset that the geese were escaping to farmers’ fields.
With that in mind, I received the following email today from a reader:
It really upsets me that my tax dollars are going to pay someone to chase geese off our beaches and onto my farmland. The real problem is that there are way too many geese and when they move into an area they can do a lot of damage to our wheat, hay, and corn crops. I have to chase them off our farmland on my dime and them the city turns around and chase them off the beaches on my dime to. There needs to be a cull on these pests, like a spring goose hunt, and increase the number of birds a hunter can take at a time. The Americans have been rounding them up in places like New York and Chicago on their parkland and gassed them and gave the meat to the food banks. Makes more sense to me. Come on Council , deal with the real problem Too many geese.
I wasn’t familiar with goose gassing, but indeed, it’s something that has been done in New York. However, in these cases it’s to prevent bird strikes by airplanes, especially after the “Miracle on the Hudson”.
I can’t imagine “too much goose poop” and “not enough beach time” would be accepted reasons for a Canada Goose cull here. Even if there was more hunting, it looks like the birds know where to go to avoid bullets. Places like Petrie Island.
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Follow City Hall reporter Jon Willing on Twitter at @JonathanWilling and at ottawasun.com.
