Target practise plan unacceptable to animal care group TRACS
http://www.kelownacapnews.com/
By Shelley Nicholl
Staff Reporter
Sep 13 2006
The idea of shooting hundreds of geese in the early morning hours on the beaches is unacceptable to Sinikka Crosland.
The president of TRACS (The Responsible Animal Care Society) said that method to combat the growing geese population is inhumane and unnecessary.
“We don’t have to be using violence against animals in this day and age,” she said. “There are other ways that are more sensible and more tolerant that we can come up with.”
At city council Monday, councillors were presented with a report on the Okanagan regional goose management strategy that suggested as a last resort, geese will have to be killed to help keep the numbers down.
Parks manager Joe Creron said this year about 60 geese have been destroyed. Last year it was about 25 and next year the city is looking for a permit to kill up to 200.
“We may not kill that many,” said Creron. “It’s just one of our tools in our toolbox.”
Other tools include enforcing bylaws to stop people from feeding geese, because it lures the geese to the public places. Birds of prey, such as falcons, have been used to kill the younger geese.
Another method is to scare the geese away with horns and lasers, and possibly dogs. Creron said it might be that certain beaches where people are not swimming, could be turned into dog parks, which would help keep the geese away.
Another approach, seen as the best long-term plan, is egg addling. That means literally shaking the goose eggs to destroy the unhatched bird. It’s more effective than taking the eggs away because the geese will just lay again to replace the missing eggs.
Crosland said there are better ways. Part of the problem is that our beaches are very inviting to geese because the grass is so short.
“They’re like five-star hotels,” she said. “They’re alluring places for geese to go to.”
She suggested that letting the grass grow longer, say six to eight inches, would deter the geese.
Geese are family-oriented, she said, and as such look for safe places to raise their kin. If there were safe places, other than the beaches, for geese to go, they would go there.
Planting shrubs would block the birds’ views, thereby creating an unsafe image for them and keep them away.
Creron didn’t rule out adopting some of the habitat modifications, which could be used in some areas where it makes sense.
The concern is in the short-term the goose feces on the beaches and in the swimming areas could pose a water-quality hazard.
Coun. Robert Hobson noted that it’s become more of an issue in the last few years because the goose population has swelled beyond a natural, environmental balance.
“People have to realize that this is not the historical population of geese,” he said.
Creron also pointed out that geese can live 10 to 15 years, so the long-term must be addressed along with the short-term. “We’ve been chasing the same geese for 10 years,” he said. “And, they’re getting smarter.”
The $150,000 cost for the goose management program would be shared between the various Okanagan communities affected. Kelowna’s share would be about $75,000.
The city already spends about $100,000 annually on goose control.