Resolving conflicts between people and canada geese: the need for comprehensive management approaches

Canada geese have become established and are now numerous enough in many urban and suburban areas that conflicts with humans have become frequent. Although potential threats to human health are often cited as a justification to manage goose populations, currently available science suggests that this is not a serious issue. This leaves the primary concern as one of aesthetics– people do not like having to deal with what can sometimes be copious amounts of goose droppings. Animal welfare interests have questioned the humaneness of different roundup and killing programs, and advocated non-lethal approaches and egg addling. Both approaches currently are being practiced in a number of different communities without, unfortunately, much being done to systematically monitor or evaluate them. This paper addresses some of the more controversial issues surrounding resident Canada goose management from an animal welfare perspective and touches on some of the different management approaches currently being practiced as examples of the need for better overall coordination and comparison of management approaches