Althouse: Gassing geese.

July 14, 2010

Gassing geese.

In NYC.

Madison has a geese problem too. These filthy, vicious fowl have newly infested the area around Picnic Point. But is gassing the best solution? Shouldn't we be eating them?

51 comments:

MadisonMan said...: My kids call Vilas Goose Poop Park.; 7/14/10, 10:43 AM
AllenS said...: If you let people hunt them year around, that would help, but if you expect the authorities to catch them and process the geese, it would be too expensive. Hamburger would be cheaper.; 7/14/10, 10:44 AM
rhhardin said...: I think CO2 asphixiation isn't particularly pleasant. CO would be better. People are always sleeping through that.

Put them in a room with an poorly maintained space heater.

Another approach is the introduction of predators, say Frenchmen.; 7/14/10, 10:45 AM
Henry said...: Shouldn't we be eating them?

But that would be Dickensian.; 7/14/10, 10:45 AM
rhhardin said...: And of course wing feather clipping would eliminate the air traffic problem.

Remember to clip only one wing. Otherwise you just get a very fast-flying duck.; 7/14/10, 10:47 AM
Roger J. said...: Professor-you apparently have never eaten wild goose--eating them is a really bad option.; 7/14/10, 10:49 AM
Fred4Pres said...: It is edible, if you cook it right, but Canada geese are not the best eating bird out there. They are more bone and feathers than edible parts too.

I have seen plenty of other waterfowl around NYC airports. Brant geese, snow geese, swans, herrons, lots of ducks. Are we going to gas all of them too?

We had a bad collision with a jet and a flock of geese. But it is going to be hard to eliminate this threat in this manner. The best way (and probably the most cost effective) to drive them off is to use falconers and shot guns to harass and kill a few.; 7/14/10, 11:03 AM
Joaquin said...: Eating them is not an option. Trust me!
On the golf courses we keep them away with trained dogs that just pester the $hit out of them till they finally fly away and go bother someone else.
1 solution: SHOOT EM!; 7/14/10, 11:06 AM
Roux said...: We have plenty of Cajuns that will gladly thin the flock.; 7/14/10, 11:09 AM
Irene said...: Control Canada Geese with Border Collies.

Border patrol against Canadians.; 7/14/10, 11:20 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: 1 solution: SHOOT EM!

My vote too. When I was living in the mountains west of Denver, I used my 12 gauge to keep the nuthatches and woodpeckers away from the house. Worked like a dream. Much better than anything else. The neighbors all had holes in their houses where the fake owls, etc. failed to work, and we didn't.

I remember having this sort of geese problem when I lived in Fort Collins (#6 in yesterday's list). Hopefully, now that they are in the top ten, they have figured this out. Back then, the parks were pretty useless during the summer because of all the goose feces all over the place.

I then had it across the street in Golden, CO, which is a better place to live in CO than any of the other places listed in that Money article.

And, most recently, in Northern Nevada here, we have a park with a pond a couple of blocks from work, on the route home, and they are a problem there as well.

I walk by most days, and the parents hiss at me as I do, presumably protecting their broods. Amazingly, one set of parents seems to have maybe a dozen, all now in the proper plumage, but still a bit smaller than the parents. There were three different families on the pond this summer, born, I would guess a week or so apart. So, one gaggle would be half grown, the next a bit younger, and the last half their size. By now though, the differences in size and plumage are disappearing.

Still, they shit all over the place, and all those young one do their fair share of contribution these days.; 7/14/10, 11:26 AM
Original Mike said...: Bruce - You sure the holes in your neighbor's houses weren't from your shotgun?; 7/14/10, 11:29 AM
Richard Dolan said...: A few good Cantonese chefs could turn today's problem into tomorrow's banquet in no time. It would give a boost to the local NYC economy as well.

The only losers would be the geese. But the nanny state would never agree.; 7/14/10, 11:45 AM
MadisonMan said...: Aren't there animals at the Vilas Park Zoo that would happily eat the geese?; 7/14/10, 11:50 AM
Original Mike said...: Lions and tigers and bears.; 7/14/10, 11:53 AM
Kirby Olson said...: Make them wear yellow stars.

The stars would have dates on them.

If a given goose doesn't fly away within a week or two, it is cooked, and the meat is sent to Palestine.; 7/14/10, 11:54 AM
Anonymous said...: Bruce - why on earth a shotgun? I use my light rifle for the woodpeckers. It does work, by the way. They have seemingly spread the word about The Evil House of Evil.; 7/14/10, 11:54 AM
Original Mike said...: Shotguns. Rifles. I wish I lived in the country. I'm stuck with trying to catch the damn, garden-eating rabbits in a live trap.; 7/14/10, 11:56 AM
Christy said...: Everyone take a cage full home. Don't they make great burglar alarms?; 7/14/10, 12:04 PM
Unknown said...: In the land of the Left, a mini-Auschwitz? Ad hoc Einsatzgruppen?

Where's all that liberal guilt?

Guess it goes to Hell when it's the Lefties who are inconvenienced; 7/14/10, 12:06 PM
TMink said...: Mmmmmmm, geeese.

Trey; 7/14/10, 12:38 PM
TosaGuy said...: Milwaukee captures them and has them tested and processed for the area food pantry.; 7/14/10, 12:39 PM
Anonymous said...: And what is in my local paper today?

Authorities say 18 Canada geese were found beaten and shot in the head near a retention pond in western New Jersey.; 7/14/10, 1:11 PM
Meade said...: Faux coyaux; 7/14/10, 1:15 PM
Quaestor said...: Henry wrote: "Shouldn't we be eating them? But that would be Dickensian."

Speaking metaphorically we silly conservative geese must say it would be Swiftian.

wv: istiebqm - error condition indicating the verification engine needs a reboot.; 7/14/10, 2:10 PM
Big Mike said...: Irene's onto something. We had some Canadians take up residence in the open lawn between two office buildings were I was working. One day a woman drove up with a pair of border collies that she turned loose on the lawn. The geese flew off honking loudly, and never came back. Apparently it was a source of income for her.

Jon Katz has an episode in his book A Dog Year: Twelve Months, Four Dogs, and Me where he uses Devon (later renamed to Orson) to chase geese from soccer fields for kids in Minneapolis.; 7/14/10, 2:12 PM
chickelit said...: Meade's idea should be tried, but I'll bet that the geese poop on it within hours.; 7/14/10, 2:42 PM
John Burgess said...: All those disfavoring the eating of Canada geese can just send the frozen carcasses to me! While the legs aren't worth much, the breast is perfectly fine. And after I get done turning them into confit, you'll be eager to buy it from me...; 7/14/10, 3:34 PM
bagoh20 said...: So he doesn't take you out for dinner as much anymore, huh?; 7/14/10, 3:38 PM
Irene said...: Big Mike, that Katz book is a sweet read.; 7/14/10, 4:10 PM
Big Mike said...: @Irene, I haven't gotten around to picking up his latest, but I really love the way Katz writes about his dogs and his livestock.

I just hope I never get between Elvis and a snickers bar.; 7/14/10, 4:48 PM
Irene said...: Big Mike, ha ha!

You also might enjoy Merle's Door. It's the best dog book I've read.; 7/14/10, 4:53 PM
Big Mike said...: @Irene, I guess Merle balances out Marley as far as yellow Labs are concerned?

I'll have to get it. Thanks for the recommendation.; 7/14/10, 6:16 PM
Irene said...: Big Mike, Merle's Door makes Marley and Me seem like fluff.

Both are good reads, but Merle's Door is much richer.; 7/14/10, 6:19 PM
Big Mike said...: @Irene -- I followed your link and read the first several pages. Looks good. Now I'm certain that I will have to get the book.

FWIW I'm certain that Marley and Me was meant to be fluff. Or at least "fluffy."; 7/14/10, 6:41 PM
Irene said...: Funny, Big Mike, I never think of Labs as "fluffy."

Poodles on the other hand....; 7/14/10, 7:32 PM
Anonymous said...: "But is gassing the best solution?"

Let's keep the Canada geese and gas New York Times employees instead.

That's a much better and more final solution to the problems of New York City.; 7/14/10, 8:08 PM
Big Mike said...: @Irene, you realize that I meant the book was mostly fluff and you're pulling my leg.; 7/14/10, 8:47 PM
barry's blog said...: I loved the NYT headline. The geese werent killed, they were "euthanized."
Like they were suffering. Is the implication that euthanasia is somehow more PC than murder?; 7/14/10, 9:30 PM
Irene said...: Big Mike, yes, leg pulling!

The movie was even fluffier. But I feel empathy for any dog who trembles during thunderstorms.; 7/14/10, 9:59 PM
AST said...: The most humane way would be to feed them into jet airliner engines just after takeoff.

But seriously, I raised a pet goose when I was five and it imprinted on me. I named it SS, because of the hissing sounds it made and for its manner of walking. All this 'gassing' talk has upset me*, but they're definitely not worth the shotgun rounds it would take to eliminate them.

* strictly for how it would worry Al Gore.; 7/14/10, 10:00 PM
Bob said...: Up in the ironically-named town of Braintree, Massachusetts, they are having such problems with the geese that nothing less than spending thousands of dollars on a Jet Ski will solve the problem.; 7/14/10, 11:10 PM
Eric said...: We had a bunch of geese where I work. When the people in the area were finally convinced not to feed them, they left.; 7/14/10, 11:13 PM
Triangle Man said...: As far as the preparation of Canada goose goes, locally I have seen hunters have them processed by a butcher into "goose sticks" (a la Slim Jim). Usually mixed with pork, and therefore tasty.

Or, perhaps a goose confit salad with fruit and nuts from the trees Madison will likely plant in the parks.

The Picnic Point flock needs culling.; 7/15/10, 9:08 AM
Anonymous said...: Tosaguy said:
Milwaukee captures them and has them tested and processed for the area food pantry.

Seattle/King County had the same geese problem back in the late '90s. It was proposed that they'd be killed and sent to local food banks. They did a cost analysis for testing that would meet all legal requirements and determined it was no go (I think it was something like $70 per bird). So it was cheaper to gas 'em and quietly dump them in a landfill. God forbid someone might get sick and sue the state.; 7/15/10, 10:52 AM
Quaestor said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/15/10, 3:17 PM
Quaestor said...: ronski1234 wrote: "So it was cheaper to gas 'em and quietly dump them in a landfill"

It's a measure of how far toward total insanity the modern nanny state has evolved that it is cheaper to waste food and let the poor go hungry than to feed them.

wv: cabfu - How taxis defend themselves in a tight spot. made popular in the West by a 1970's television series about an Asian rickshaw trying to get by in the rough and tumble days of 19th century "Barbary Coast" San Francisco.; 7/15/10, 3:23 PM
Lincolntf said...: "They Gas Geese, Don't They?" by Althouse McCoy.

A maudlin existentialist tale of bloggers forced to post their musings every day in a perpetual competition for clicks. A compelling but grueling process that reveals the participants as vengeful, lustful, unbalanced and ultimately murderous, the story is hard to love, but harder to put down.; 7/15/10, 3:41 PM
Unknown said...: First, they are "Canada" geese. Not "Canadian" geese or "Canadians". If we started gassing Canadians we would have a bigger problem on our hands.

Second, they are good to eat. I know because I hunt them and I kill (and eat, together with my friends) twenty to thirty Canada geese per year. Often made into some kind of sausage, true, but nonetheless good to eat.; 7/16/10, 4:50 PM
Anonymous said...: What a great, Keynesian solution -- pay people to round up and gas a migratory bird, that by its nature will keep coming back, year after year, because we're paying other people to keep our parks mowed down and planted with goose food.

These USDA-APHIS promoted roundups are basically turning our parks into poorly planned, poorly run public farms, raising animals whose meat is one step up from garbage. According to health codes the meat can't be sold, and even if we pay upwards of $100 per goose to have it processed and tested, the best we can do is give it away at food pantries. The only party that gains a thing is USDA-APHIS, who rakes in a fat sack of tax dollars for each of these operations. No wonder they spend money sending their staff to public hearings to promote these things.

There is no case I can think of in local government that is closer to actually paying one guy to dig holes and another guy to fill them in again.

Fiscal conservatives should be all over this one. Why aren't they?; 7/21/10, 1:43 PM
Ken Leal said...: Every year Canadian geese droppings cause thousands of dollars to be spent in cleanup costs.
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Geese Problem; 8/16/10, 1:22 AM