Why is killing always the first option?

Why is killing always the first option?

According to the Associated Press, the North Little Rock City Council bowed to
public pressure and reversed its decision to allow a hunt in a city park to
remove 130 resident Canada Geese. The council had to pass a waiver to their
ordinance banning the discharging of firearms within city limits for the hunt.
The hunt has not been canceled and participating hunters are still required to
attend one of two training sessions in case the hunt does go on.

According to local residents, the town does not enforce its ordinance prohibiting the feeding of waterfowl at the park and has not tried any non-lethal methods of control.

It's a rather simple logic puzzle. Why are the geese choosing to stay in the park and create a mess? The answer is food and safety. Parks cut the grass short and park patrons feed bread and corn to the geese. Parks require dogs to be on leash and the landscaping discourages natural predators. Lots of free food and no one bothers you! Where can I get a deal like that?

When you cut grass short, you remove the older growth that does not taste good. The sugar content is much higher within an inch or two of the ground, so cutting grass short actually encourages geese to stick around for sweeter snacks. Letting the grass grow to as little as four inches in length greatly alters the taste and geese will avoid it. This obviously can not be done on places suck as sports fields and gardens, but selectively doing this will cause the geese to concentrate in other areas where you can more effectively employ targeted non-lethal methods.

People feeding the geese provide a steady stream of free food and help support a larger population than the area could do so otherwise. It removes the natural fear geese have of humans and they start ganging up on people for a free handout. Geese in these conditions start to eat anything dropped on the ground such as nuts, bolts, screws, nails, and glass. These items get stuck or cut the digestive system of the geese. It is known as "Hardware Disease," one of the leading causes of goose death.

Trained border collies change the environment by providing a "perceived predatory presence" in the park. You are changing that safety factor part of the equation. The geese will start to associate the park with danger and avoid it.

We could just kill all the geese, but that does nothing to address the underlying causes of the goose problem. Yes, you removed the problem geese. But guess what - geese fly! Others will fly over your park and see "Goose Heaven." They are going to stop by, and soon your park will look exactly the same.

Every summer the USDA has teams that collect geese when they are flightless and throw them in gas chambers. The geese bang about in agony, slowly suffocating for several minutes. The local population gets upset and before the goose crap has a chance to degrade, the rest of the local population starts to fly and a new bunch of geese fly in. They have been doing this for decades and goose populations have grown exponentially -- because it does not work.

I remember looking out over one of my clients' lakes and seeing a thousand geese. That's all it is now ... a memory. They have had one day in the last two months with geese, and then there were only a dozen. Address the underlying causes of a problem and you will solve it.

If you have a boat with a hole in it, you can get a bigger bucket or you can patch the hole. It's up to you, but I would rather fish than bail.

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/b302920128fa4f90b4b3d3f283d45846/AR--Goose-Hunt/