Bay Area city cries fowl over goose solution

What’s good for the Goose might not be so great for one Bay Area city.

And now, someone’s goose is getting cooked.

Or, well, euthanized, at least.

According to KTVU, Foster City has a pretty fowl problem.

For months, gaggles and gaggles of geese have swarmed Marlin Park.

Unfortunately, each goose comes with an even bigger problem: their droppings are exceptionally fowl.

Beaches around the lagoon have had to be closed due to the high levels of e. coli in the water.

SF Gate quotes Foster City spokesman Austin Walsh:

“Last year, Heal the Bay identified three Foster City beaches among the top 10 most polluted in California”

A Wild Goose Hunt

It wasn’t for lack of a solution, either.

Walsh explained to SF Gate:

“A variety of nonlethal deterrents such as fogging, birth control, dog hazing, strobe lights, egg addling, fencing and other approaches have been explored and/or attempted to mitigate the health hazard posed by Canada goose droppings, but the success of those efforts has been limited”

And so, Foster City may be forced into a more lethal solution.

KTVU notes that the city is currently waiting on a permit from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

A permit to begin what they call “population control.”

But it may not be so easy.

On Wednesday, dozens of demonstrators descended upon Foster City’s City Hall with signs and chanting.

Some, according to SFGate, are wearing gas masks, others holding fake goose corpses, with at least one report of a smoke machine.

“Let the geese live!”

The protesters appear to be from In Defense of Animals, an international animal protection organization.

A statement on their website says:

“Our message is simple, yet powerful ‘Let the geese live!’ Stand up for innocent geese and goslings who are our wild animal neighbors. They don’t deserve to painfully suffocate to death in horror and confusion.”