Alpena has approved hunting Canada geese at the county fairgrounds before finishing the humane goose control it already started. I'm asking the Alpena Municipal Council to call off any remaining hunts and give nonlethal solutions a real chance.

On Sept. 8, the council voted 3-2 to allow a controlled goose hunt at the Alpena County Fairgrounds on Sept. 17, 24 and 30. Only a month before, the same council had turned a hunt down. City officials pointed to goose droppings and said this year's nonlethal work didn't get far enough. But severe flooding last spring threw that work off track. It never got a fair test.

The city is still looking at humane tools, including egg oiling and Away with Geese lights. Its own Goose Management Committee is still reviewing options. Council Member Kevin Currier voted for the hunt, yet he questioned whether it would really fix the droppings problem. Mayor Cindy Johnson has said she hopes the city keeps working toward better answers before next spring.

If the people who approved this hunt aren't sure it will work, it shouldn't go forward. Shooting geese doesn't clean up a field. Better cleanup, smarter landscaping, humane deterrents, and nest and egg management (with the required permits) go after the real problem. The animal protection group In Defense of Animals has offered its expertise and resources to help Alpena build that kind of plan.

Mayor Johnson and council members Danny Mitchell, Kevin Currier, Bridget Hollinshead and Karol Walchak: please stop the hunts and finish the nonlethal work you began.

Sign the petition to give Alpena's geese a fair chance before next spring's nesting season begins.