The Foster City Council has voted to cull geese as soon as they receive a final permit.   Wherever there are Canada geese, there are droppings, and therein lies the main problem that many people have with these mostly harmless birds. Although most complaints are simply about the presence of droppings, sometimes people express concerns about public health and safety, but research has not found any significant health threats from goose feces.  Geese can also cause conflicts when they defend their young from people who come too close to the nest. Geese rarely attack; when people are injured, it usually results from a startled person falling down rather than from direct contact with a goose.

The Foster City Council members have deemed the Canada geese a nuisance so they believe the solution is to round them up and have them killed, a process that is inhumane, ineffective and unnecessary. 
INHUMANE Most roundups occur during the birds’ annual molt (from mid-June through July), when they are growing new feathers and can’t fly, making them easy targets. Roundups often include large numbers of young birds who haven’t yet developed the ability to fly. During a roundup, wildlife agents set up portable pens and herd Canada geese inside, separating the adults from their goslings. Next, the geese are typically packed in crates before being killed by carbon dioxide gas (a painful and distressing death), often in small chambers on the back of trucks brought directly to the roundup site. In other cases, the geese are trucked to slaughterhouses to be killed and processed. Because meat from federally protected birds cannot be sold, it may be offered to food banks to create the impression that the killing was a charitable act. However, goose meat is often contaminated with lead, pesticides and other toxicants, making it unsuitable for human consumption. Food banks often reject these donations of goose meat. 
INEFFECTIVE Roundups and killings do not solve conflicts with Canada geese. While they may clear a specific area of Canada geese for a short time, roundups free up prime real estate for more geese to move into as soon as the annual molt ends. The best way to solve conflicts with Canada geese is with a multi-pronged plan that humanely reduces the goose population and changes the habitat so it is less attractive to geese. 
UNNECESSARY Humane programs have been successfully resolving conflicts with Canada geese in many communities for many years. These programs use a combination of techniques to curtail reproduction and to keep geese away from areas where they’re causing problems. 

Luckily, there is an alternative to killing geese: a humane Canada goose management plan. Such a plan combines techniques—aversive conditioning with specially trained dogs or lasers, egg addling, habitat modification and anti-feeding programs—to help reduce conflicts with geese. Several communities around the country have adopted humane Canada goose management plans with great success. It’s time for us to join them! There will always be geese, and they are only transitory visitors.  We must learn to coexist!