Posted on 03/15/2006 12:10:48 PM PST by RushCrush
Like a lot of homeowners, Larry Tomko has grown weary of geese. He's tired of scraping poop from his driveway with a snow shovel. He's fed up with boorish geese gobbling millet he leaves for chickadees. He feels overrun when dozens of the feathery transients loll in the pond a few steps from his yard.
When his frustration brims, Tomko has run out his front door waving his arms and shouting at the geese. Sometimes he launches bottle rockets at them. About 10 years ago, he started firing pellets from an old air rifle at the geese. They would squawk and flee.
Then on Feb. 26, he killed one, accidentally, sort of, with the pellet gun. Geese are federally protected, and neighbor Jack Casino saw it. Casino is a former hunter who said he has seen too many innocent animals suffer at the hands of man.
Now, Tomko has a date with the criminal justice system. And the incident has generated anxiety in the bucolic, unincorporated Winfield Township subdivision, transforming the place into a microcosm of the decades-long conflict known as man versus goose.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Not after I saw NAIS
Have you ever seen the Exploding Whale video? Granted, that was good ol' dynamite, not an acid-base reaction.
When I lived in northern Colorado for a few years, over a decade ago, we were inundated in season with flocks of Canada geese. I couldn't help wondering (1) how good they might have tasted for dinner, and (2) how much down one dead goose would give up. ;)
Results of Renfield's goose-management technique may be seen here:
http://www.bucksnducks.net/photos/Geese%2002.jpg
Pie eater--Do your parents live in the city, or in the country? I live in Maryland, and am very efficient at culling geese. If they live where it's legal to shoot, I'd be happy to remove their geese. (Go here for photo showing results:
http://www.bucksnducks.net/photos/Geese%2002.jpg )
How do you MOVE geese?
Just poke holes in the eggs or they will lay more eggs!
I have just written a letter to my state senator asking for legislation that will allow the destruction of the resident goose population which will be the greatest vector for spreading avian flu to all of us. They crap in every park, schoolyard, golf course and yards everywhere. One goose produces up to 2 lbs of poop daily. The people who have died from the bird flu are those with exposure to bird poop. The bird flu will soon be here and the geese will be the agent for spread!
Confession is good for the soul!
I guess the federal government saw something that they could relate to.
I really had to think about that one. (getting old) That was one the Brits tried to shake loose wasn't it? Terrible mess was the result.
As it happens, I have a smoked goose breast in the fridge right now, with your name on it. If you want to drive down to Maryland and eat i (with a good shiraz and some cheese and fruit) let me know.
Geese are good to eat. One of my goose-hunting buddies refers to a Canada goose as a "ribeye-in-the-sky".
THAT sounds very yummy!
"...why not just MOVE them?.."
This may have escaped you, but GEESE HAVE WINGS...and excellent eyesight. You might move them, but unless you cut off the ends of their wings, or blind them, they'll just fly back to where they were before they were moved.
Geese, for the most part, are like salmon. They return to nest where they were born, and don't abandon the spot unless they are incessantly harrassed (or killed and eaten).
Can't win, I suppose.
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