Bend parks officials consider killing geese

BEND, Ore. - Parks officials in Bend say they might have to kill some geese to cut down on the growing number of the birds taking up residence in the city's parks.

[jerry gilmour]

The river will run red before you control the geese by killing them. All you will accomplish is the improvement of the habitat for the survivors and more will come. Unless and until you kill the very last goose, they will reappear. Do you folks who think the geese are messy and unhealthful and are invading OUR space believe you have the ethical right to remove a natural species by death? You can't possibly be serious and can't possibly be more wrong. I wasn't able to be at the meeting last night, however my wife was and she related that some asked whether the publicity of killing geese would hurt the tourist industry. I can tell you that it will absolutely not. The tourists will flock (pardon the pun) but they won't be nice folks here to enjoy our nice town. They will be animal rights folk (won't you hunters who want to come closer to town enjoy that one!) They will come and the nice civil meetings like the one held last night won't be quite so civil. We built the nice grassy parks along the river and the geese came. If the parks dept wants to build a platform for the animal rights folk, they will come too. The folks in Seattle who tried to make the sea lions move away from the locks can tell you that you have an unpleasant journey ahead of you if you elect to kill the geese. The justification for the sea lion mess was several times more solid than goose poop and through many years of trying the payoff has been unpleasant (and the sea lions are still there!!). If you can't live with the goose poop in the parks either go live elsewhere or stay out of the parks. It's that simple and it's the only solution.

[Goose lover]

I love the geese, but I think there may be a mutually beneficial situation at hand

1) Lots of geese, we need to cull them to protect them and keep them from getting illnesses which would wipe out the whole population

2) Lots of homeless people, they need food

3) Solution, kill the geese, feed the people. More geese will come, more people will be fed and the society will find an equilibrium that serves both.