Geese in this CT city are out of control. A vote comes today on whether to kill them

Local and national animal rights groups are working to block a proposed geese management plan that would authorize the round-up and killing of geese at Veterans’ Memorial Park and other city-owned properties.

Bristol officials said more aggressive tactics are necessary to address a hazardous geese population they say has grown out of control, littering walkways and grassy areas with excrement. Animal advocates criticized the lethal methods outlined in the proposal, describing the strategies as inhumane and ineffective when clean-up options are available.

The Bristol Board of Park Commissioners will vote Wednesday on whether or not to forward the geese management plan to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection for final approval.

Bristol’s Department of Parks, Recreation, Youth and Community Services, said the city has expended more than $15,000 on non-lethal management efforts since 2017.

While the department said these methods “yielded temporary results,” ultimately the geese population has not decreased.

The proposal would authorize the department to enter into a one-year, $3,365 agreement with USDA Wildlife Services to manage the geese populations at Veterans Memorial Boulevard Park, Pine Lake Park, Malones Pond and other city-owned properties through lethal and nonlethal methods.

“We’re not trying to eliminate all the geese. We’re just trying to control the population,” said Mayor Jeffrey Caggiano , the chair of the board. “This is not a population that is endangered. This is not a population that is on the decline.”

Caggiano said the city began exploring new mitigation strategies months ago when members of the Bristol Veterans Council asked local officials to “step it up and do something different” about the geese poop at the park, which honors the lives and sacrifice of servicemen and women.

Priscilla Feral, the president of Friends of Animals , said that if droppings are the problem, the conversation should be about cleanup, not killing.

Feral explained that goose round-ups occur when flocks experience a flightless molting period between mid-June and mid-August, after their eggs hatch.

According to DEEP , the process involves herding geese into portable nets and then euthanizing the birds off

site.

“They’re going to physically assault parents, their goslings and then gas them with nitrous oxide, and call it a goose management plan,” Feral said. “I think it’s obscene and I hope that DEEP will agree.”

Feral said the proposal would put Bristol on the path of a “killing treadmill,” as new flocks settle in the location where deceased birds once nested.

“Nature abhors a vacuum,” Feral said. “It’s going to be repeated year after year (because) when you remove one flock of geese … it invites other geese to occupy that area.”

Feral said that in order to stop geese from coming to the pond, Bristol must make the environment less accommodating. Feral explained that geese prefer “golf course type habitats” with wide open areas that allow flocks to easily spot predators.

Until the city modifies the landscape, Feral said Bristol should clean up after the birds.

“I think the best thing that they can do is invest in the lawn sweeping equipment,” Feral said.

“They’re treating native wildlife as though it’s snow removal,” Feral said. “Friends of Animals finds it deeply offensive and we really think there is a remedy and that’s to clean up after the geese in the park.”

Problems in the Park

Caggiano said that 10% of Bristol residents are veterans. He explained that the Veterans’ Memorial Park is a “sacred place” for veterans and visitors, but right now it has a pervasive problem.

“You can’t walk anywhere on that boulevard without stepping on goose droppings,” Bristol Veterans Council Chairman Rick Carello said.

Carello said the council voted unanimously to support whatever path DEEP decides to take to address Bristol’s Geese, but he said the vote did not come without reservations, especially from animal lovers, like himself.

Carello said he floated the idea of hosting volunteer cleanup days to pick up the geese poop, but ultimately he said the task was too daunting and hazardous, and “it wouldn’t be much longer before they were all right back again.”

Carello said the main concern is the harmful bacteria and parasites in geese droppings, including salmonella, E. coli, cryptosporidium, coliform and others that can pose a danger to pets and humans.

“When it dries out, it gets into a powder farm, so the wind blows it everywhere. If you’re out there walking, you can ingest it. If you’re out there with your pet, they can ingest it,” Carello said.

“The Veterans Council is approaching it from a health and safety standpoint,” Carello added. “We really do think it’s something that has to be done.”

Between 2017 and 2019 Bristol spent $14,720 on a program that used dogs to scare geese away from Veterans Memorial Boulevard. The City’s Department of Parks, Recreation, Youth and Community Services said the approach yielded “temporary results,” however “the services needed to be rendered multiple times each year, which became too costly.”

The city also spent nearly $280 on Swan Decoys at the same location between 2022 and 2023, a tactic that also saw temporary results until the geese became accustomed to the decoys, the department said.

Educational sign campaigns instructing the public to not feed the birds remain ongoing.

“Bristol has reached out to us to express concerns about a nuisance goose problem in one of their parks,” Paul Copleman, a spokesperson for DEEP, said. “We have discussed nonlethal ways to address these issues, which we understand Bristol has tried. If nonlethal methods fail, a municipality can prepare a plan to remove the geese and submit that to DEEP for review and approval. That’s been available as a tool to alleviate resident goose problems in urban areas since it passed the Connecticut State Legislature as Public Act 03-192 in 2003.”

Bristol’s proposed program, which comes at an estimated cost of $3,365, would run until March 31, 2025, and cover two visits by Wildlife Services for egg and nest treatments and up to three visits for geese dispersal or removal.

“Canada goose dispersal will be conducted using pyrotechnics, remote control vehicle, physical actions, and other non-lethal methods,” the proposal states. “Canada goose removal will be conducted using live capture with any lawful method and euthanization using AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) approved methods off-site.”

The department said any geese killed through the program “may be donated for human consumption or disposed of by burial or incineration” at the discretion of Wildlife Services.

Over the duration of the contract, the department said its staff will conduct monthly population surveys at Veterans Memorial Boulevard Park, Pine Lake, and Page Park Pond.

Andrea Dobras, a board member for Connecticut for Animals Education Fund, said she anticipates “that the animal lovers and the animal supporters are going to show up in full force” to the commission vote.

“Violence and killing for convenience is never OK,” Dubras said. “These geese are innocent beings. Bristol created this ideal place for them to live, and they came and they stayed and they love it there. They raised their young there. And now all of a sudden, Bristol doesn’t want them there and they think that gassing them is going to solve this problem. But if you don’t change this ideal place to live … they’re going to just keep returning.”