Humane Society denounces Delafield goose roundup
Delafield - The Humane Society of the United States denounced Delafield's recent roundup of non-migratory Canada geese that was aimed at thinning the bird's numbers on Lake Nagawicka.
About 80 geese were collected on June 22 and sent to food pantries.
City officials turned to the roundup because of the increasing presence of geese on the lake and the effects goose droppings are having on the lake's water quality. Lake property owners also complained about the amount of goose droppings on their yards.
"The HSUS opposes the practice of rounding up and killing these birds for nuisance problems that can be effectively and humanely solved using other approaches, and for which the punishment of death is simply wrong," Lynsey White Dasher, urban wildlife specialist for the society, says in a news release.
The society sent a letter to Mayor Ed McAleer that urges the city not use roundups in the future to control geese. It suggests the city use other/ methods, including coating goose eggs with corn oil to prevent the eggs from hatching and using specially trained dogs and human volunteers to chase geese from targeted areas.
The city has tried non-lethal methods in the past to control geese, but those options have not worked, officials said.
The city did oil eggs this year as part of its control methods.
Delafield's plan to round up geese drew national and international scorn in the spring, when a Massachusetts man started an online petition urging the city to halt the roundup and use more humane methods to control geese. The man learned of the roundup from a Delafield resident.
In May, city officials said they would not back down from the roundup, pointing out that roundups have been used for years by a number of communities across Wisconsin to thin geese populations.