In Defense of Animals protects geese from “cullings,” "roundups," and cruelty.
Whenever anyone complains about goose poop in their community, the property owner will try to find a way to get rid of the geese and solve the “problem” as quickly and easily as possible, even if it is a cruel and unsound solution in the long run. The government or a private company is often hired to roundup and kill the geese.
When geese are removed or rounded up, parents are separated from their offspring, and they desperately call out for each other.
During a goose roundup, panicked birds are often gassed to death. This painful, excruciating process was not designed for geese, who feed for long periods underwater and fly at high altitudes where oxygen content is low. If not gassed, they may be brought to a slaughterhouse to meet a grim and bloody fate.
Every year, many thousands of geese are brutally killed in gas chambers, but it doesn’t have to be this way when non-lethal alternatives can be used instead to help us all peacefully coexist.
- The Issue with Goose Roundups
- How We Help Protect Geese
- Take Action to Protect Geese
- Latest Goose News
Geese can hold their breath for prolonged periods of up to 45 minutes or more while the gas burns and freezes their lungs. Witnesses report hearing geese in gas chambers banging and thumping, desperately to escape while they slowly suffocate.
Unless the features that attracted the geese to the area in the first place are changed through habitat modification, new geese will flock to the area and the endless cycle of killing continues.
Goose roundups and cullings don’t work. They amount to nothing more than a waste of taxpayer’s or homeowner association member’s money.
Goose Conflicts Come From Human Mismanagement
Canada Geese were hunted almost to extinction in the earlier part of the 20th century. States brought young geese in from other areas to restore goose populations in the 1960's. These new geese never learned to migrate. In the wild, older geese teach younger ones how to migrate.
Goose conflicts start when people adapt the environment to suit our needs with lawns, ponds, and pedestrian walkways. This tailored human environment is a perfect goose habitat with lots of accessible food, few predators, and a reliable water source. When people feed the geese, they have no reason to leave. As the goose population flourishes, people complain about too much goose poop in public parks and in residential developments with ponds. Community leaders or homeowner association boards contact a government agency (Fish & Wildlife, APHIS, DNR, USDA) to step in and solve the “problem.”
Government agencies issue renewable killing contracts to reduce the goose population. Since killing geese does not address the root cause of overpopulation, government agencies rely on a solution to a problem that stems from human mismanagement. If effective nonlethal alternatives are used before the population grows, then goose poop would not be an issue in the first place. Fortunately, humane alternatives can help at any time.
What We Do To Protect Geese
We work to protect geese by raising awareness of how humans and geese can co-exist peacefully and without conflict. We:
- Provide nonlethal goose conflict solutions via our expert mentors and virtual presentations;
- Raise awareness about goose sentience and debunk myths about goose behavior and biology;
- Actively prevent and stop goose roundups;
- Expose corruption and waste of funds from goose roundups.
What You Can Do To Protect Geese
- Become an IDA member by donating today
- Learn how to protect geese within your community
- Educate yourself and others about the truth behind goose roundups
- Share our Humane Goose Management Guide with your community leaders
- Contact us for help to prevent or stop a goose roundup in your community
- Take action for geese by signing one of our urgent alerts
