"...about humane methods of deterring geese from settling on our beaches and golf courses."

Although I think that what is argued in this post is generally valid, there is a fundamental flaw in the approach to it. The people of the area do not want geese settling on our beaches and golf courses. OUR -- if this tenet were to be carried through to its logical conclusion, the geese would not be allowed to settle anywhere in B.C. or Canada or North America due to the corollary that British Columbia is OUR province, Canada is OUR country and North America is OUR continent.

In terms of possession, it is largely invalid to say that any part of the world is OURS. It is all OURS or none of it is. The initial problem occurs when the word OUR does not include the geese. OUR must begin to include all living and sentient beings in any given area (or, more appropriately, all given areas) or it should not be used. It becomes corrupted or meaningless.

It causes me to wonder how much goose feces one person could pick up in one day. If $300,000 is being spent to control where the geese settle, perhaps several thousand could be more appropriately spent to hire some humans to pick up the aftermath of said settling. I really doubt that any person would require $300,000 to pick up the "stuff". Even if those persons would want that much remuneration, the geese would still be around to be appreciated by those of us who see them as beautiful and noble animals. I wish that the same adjectives could be used to specify more human animals who deposit their waste material (here the word "shit" is probably more appropriate) in every stream, river, lake and ocean on the face of the planet.