Guns Help Police Geese As Well

Spring brings Canada Geese to the New York area, making frustrated park- and cemetery-goers and golfers, too, dream of rifles and shotguns:

For years, frustrated golf-course groundskeepers and park managers have deployed, to little effect, chemical goose deterrents, plastic owls and shiny metallic streamers.

Now, trained border collies are proving to be successful in tackling the problem in some locations.

Resurrection Cemetery superintendent Anthony Carpinello contacted the Howell, N.J.-based Geese Police, which uses the dogs to keep Canada geese from settling in parks and fields. Carpinello saw the feathered flock dwindle from nearly 500 to about 25.

“We had to do something,” said Carpinello, who noted that visitors to loved ones’ graves often complained about the goose droppings speckling the grounds of the Pleasant Plains cemetery. Each goose produces one to two pounds of droppings per day.

“Unfortunately, in the business we’re in, people are grieving, and the last thing a family wants to see when they come is droppings all over and they’re stepping in it. [The Geese Police] have been very successful. It has helped us immensely,” he said.

But back to shooting them:

In case you’re wondering, it’s illegal to shoot or in any other way harm Canada geese in New York state.