Committee Tables Euthanizing Geese

The township will be using educational methods as well as an egg and nest searching treatment to combat the rising geese population in Lacey.

“I have some resident geese who have made my backyard their home,” Township Administrator Veronica Laureigh said. “It’s starting already. The season is warm. I saw the first lake tonight and it was covered with geese. We’re going to have to start early.”

The committee unanimously decided to pursue education as well as eggs and nest searching while tabling the euthanization method, which would capture goslings before they are able to fly and eliminate them.

Education will consist of increasing sign awareness around the lake area and notifying approximately 300 residents living along the lakes by a formal letter for $835. The signage is used to warn residents that it is illegal to feed the birds.

“I think the education is cost effective,” Laureigh said. “It could be an effective tool.”

Destruction to the eggs and nests would be done beginning in March through May for $2,374.

Other methods such as border collies costs $340 a week from March through August while capture costs $6,056.

Committeeman David Most supported capture because the resident geese will remain, he said.

“I think the bottom line is do we want to turn the lake into a bird sanctuary or do we want to use it as a lake?” he said. “I think it’s prudent to act on it because the more delay we put on it, the more eggs we will have.”

Some residents questioned the possibility of hunting the birds, Committeeman Sean Sharkey said.

“I don’t know how everyone feels about open hunting on lakes in residential areas,” he said. “I’m against that adamantly hands down. That sounds like a really bad idea. That means that unfortunately the next step is really going to have to be capture.”

Mayor Mark Dykoff and Committeeman Gary Quinn showed concern over the cost of the capturing method with the budget process soon approaching.

“$6,000 is a lot of money,” they both said.

“The beach is certainly a major problem but we’re also going to get a lot of folks coming forward because the parks are just as bad,” Quinn added. “We’re going to really have to start dealing with this problem as the years go forward.”

Capture is a method the committee may have to consider in the future, he said.

“We’re all animal lovers,” he said. “But where do you draw the line when it comes to euthanizing an animal. There’s a real balance that we have to come up with.”

A lot of money has been spent in man-hours between having employees from public works and the recreation department cleaning the beaches, Quinn said.

“(Recreation Director James Wioland) wants to enhance the participation of the beaches and to do that we have to offer people a clean beach,” Most said. “If you take a walk down there, there’s just geese, geese, geese.”

The capture method was put off until the next meeting on Thursday, March 8 at 7 p.m.

“Something has to be done,” one resident said. She questioned whether people would be opposed to euthanizing rats if they populated the township’s beaches.