PLEASE TAKE ACTION:

• WRITE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR OF THE LOCAL NEWSPAPER, THE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL WHERE THE BRUTALITY OCCURRED PROTESTING THESE MERCILESS ACTS AND SUGGESTING HUMANE METHODS.

• GET THE DATA TO CHALLENGE THE LIES AND DISTORTIONS THAT ARE PROPAGATED BY HATERS OF CANADA GEESE FROM THESE TWO INFORMATIVE ARTICLES: Do Canada Geese Pose a Health Risk?  Geese are not a health threat

             

OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN

Goose roundup irks White Lake Township woman

Published: Thursday, June 24, 2010

By CAROL HOPKINS
Of The Oakland Press

Debbie Gubala watched a Canada goose roundup on Lake Neva in White Lake Township last weekend.

The state permits roundups between June 14-30, during which time the birds molt and are flightless.

“It was the most barbaric, awful thing you could ever witness,” said Gubala, who also lives on the lake and often feeds geese and swans.

During roundups, she has seen people “terrify” the birds.

“They grab them by the wings, and carry them to the truck with the cages,” Gubala said. “We don’t know then what they’re doing with them.”

Gubala’s friend, Karen Stamper, also hates the roundups, where people herd the geese into a pen and then a contractor such as Goosebusters is hired to relocate the geese.

Stamper of Walled Lake believes people aren’t trying other methods to discourage nuisance geese.

“The Department of Natural Resources and Environment isn’t enforcing the rules,” Stamper said.

State officials said Stamper must prove her allegations.

Everyone involved agrees removing nuisance geese is a contentious, complex matter.

New rules in goose management

Last year, about 7,000 geese were rounded up and relocated around Michigan, said Barbara Avers, DNRE waterfowl and wetlands specialist. About 750 were destroyed because the state did not have relocation sites for them, she said.

Last year was the first time in 10 years geese were killed, she said. The meat was donated to soup kitchens.

However, geese rounded up this year are being relocated, not killed, Avers said.

There are also new rules involving geese, she said. In the past, DNRE relocated birds but now private contractors move them.

“We now have a $200 annual permit fee and we did expand the number of eligible sites that could participate in egg and nest destruction,” she said.

People who want to do a roundup must first show they have tried nest and egg destruction.

“If (organizations) didn’t do that, we should be notified,” said Avers.

Avers said applications for roundup permits are down 42 percent from last year.

“We’re attributing this to fees and to being more strict about nest and egg destruction,” Avers said.

Karen Stamper believes some lake associations are skipping nest and egg destruction and just going straight to roundups. Avers said that is not allowed.

Stamper became a champion of Canada geese as a result of watching and photographing them near a Commerce Township pond three years ago.

Then one day she walked to the pond and all the geese were gone, the result of a roundup.

She now feels so strongly about ending roundups, she takes a kayak out onto lakes that have roundups to try and disrupt them.

“I try to help the geese get away,” she said.

“I just feel bad for these guys (birds). All they eat is grass and seeds. They’re not eating garbage. When it rains, (the feces) goes away. People should try to deter them better. They shouldn’t be enticing them to walk onto lawns.”

Gubala said she met Stamper through a woman who sells bread for the birds to the two women. Gubala said she feeds swans and ducks.

Gubala would prefer that residents shake the birds’ eggs, discouraging the birds from nesting at the site.

“Birds will fly elsewhere when they have no success,” she said.

Lakefront owner endorses roundups

Williams Lake Association President Joe Petrusha has dealt with roundups for the past seven years.

“The geese are collected and redistributed,” said Petrusha, who lives on Williams Lake in Waterford.

“It’s important to me because of the feces and the dangers it causes for kids playing in the yard and getting it on themselves if they have an open cut,” he said.

“It could be detrimental to them. It’s very important to me.”

Years ago, Petrusha recalled seeing up to 50 geese on the lake. When roundups were discussed, he remembered some residents worried about the geese.

“They said it wasn’t fair to the geese,” he said.

But the majority of owners supported it.

Because the lake association has been arranging roundups for years, “we don’t have the accumulation of geese that several other lake have,” he said.

While roundups are set at some lakes this month, including Watkins lake, state officials stressed that nest destruction appears to be the best path for groups weary of nuisance geese.

“If people do it correctly, there is no need for a roundup,” Avers said. “It solves the conflict and the geese won’t have to relocate. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

Contact staff writer Carol Hopkins at 248-745-4645 or carol.hopkins@oakpress.com. Follow her on Twitter @waterfordreport.

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Michigan goose killings spark anger

DNR says it's a last resort in attempt to control population

Jim Lynch / The Detroit News

Milford -- Carrie McDavid has never been a fan of the way Michigan handles its population of Canada geese, but this year she feels the state's policies have gone from bad to barbaric.

For the first time in a decade, the Department of Natural Resources authorized the killing of geese this summer to control the population where the birds interact with humans.

Some 800 geese have been rounded up, sent to a processing plant and turned to food for the needy.

"It's cruel and it's brutal," McDavid said. She and her husband moved to a home on the Huron River three years ago, in part, because of the Canada geese that are regular visitors.

The state's decision to kill geese this year as part of its management plan has drawn fire from many animal rights groups and residents. But state officials contend they are handcuffed by fewer available places to take the birds.

Officials described the decision to kill the geese as a "last resort" and said the animals will be used at soup kitchens around the state.

Seven years ago, Michigan had as estimated 325,000 Canada geese. This year, the population is down to 201,000 -- smack in the middle of the state's target of 175,000 and 225,000. But it's difficult to disperse that population.

Canada geese have an eye for many of the same perks humans do: a well-manicured lawn, a man-made lake at the center of an apartment complex or the enticing green grasses of a golf course.

As development has spread into new areas in recent decades, geese are coming into contact with humans more often.

In recent years, Michigan's strategy for Canada geese has been three-fold. Homeowners are first encouraged to deal with the birds themselves in safe ways such as altering their landscapes and using scare tactics such as plastic owls or dogs to run the birds off.

Where that fails, the state offers training for the identification and destruction of geese nests and eggs.

And when that doesn't work, the state has rounded up geese and transported them out of the problem areas. In some instances, that has meant shuffling the birds to other spots in Michigan where they can be hunted or are unlikely to come into contact with humans.

Michigan also has shipped its Canada geese to Kentucky and Iowa in recent years to help those states bolster their bird populations for hunting. But this year, those requests for geese did not come, and DNR officials said they were forced to send some of the birds to the processing plant.

"We recognized that we only had so many suitable release sites throughout the state," said Barbara Avers, a waterfowl specialist with DNR. "We have criteria we've established for what is an appropriate release site. We don't want to create even more problems by placing them somewhere else."

To some, the Canada goose is a majestic creature that is essentially harmless to have around if you're capable of dealing with its prodigious excrement. To others, the geese are annoyances that often get aggressive and create a mess that is disproportionate to the bird's size.

St. Clair Shores resident Rose Marie Jacobs is among those who appreciate the geese. A longtime member of the Slow Spokes Bicycle Club, Jacobs often leads rides along Lake St. Clair in the Grosse Points that feature geese, swans and ducks in the scenery.

"They are very graceful," Jacobs said. "I just appreciate the birds for their beauty."

Like many, Jacobs admits she has had her run-ins with angry geese -- even as recently as two weeks ago -- but she said that's hardly a reason to kill them.

To McDavid, even rounding up the birds and relocating them is an extreme form of population management. She and others circulated online and paper petitions calling on local and state officials to protest the DNR's Canada goose policies. Those petitions garnered hundreds of supporters but little, if any, impact on the state's actions.

Judging by some headlines, interactions between man and Canada geese appear to be getting nastier, and not just in Michigan:

• In New York City, officials decided in June to kill by gassing at least 2,000 geese near airports as a means of protecting planes from bird strikes.

• A year ago, Clinton Township Police were searching for the members of a golfing foursome that allegedly used their cart to run down a goose on the course.

• In May 2005, a Texas Instruments employee in Attleboro, Mich., stomped a Canada goose and her five goslings to death.

• In April 2005, a Farmington Hills parks and recreation employee shot a goose six times in what he said was an act of self-defense.

Such interactions are the logical result of how Michigan continues to develop seemingly every inch of available land, according to some environmentalists.

"We've stolen their habitat," said Doug Martz, the St. Clair Channelkeeper. "Now there are only certain places left for them to go."

jlynch@detnews.com (313) 222-2034