BRISTOL, Conn. — The final vote regarding what to do about so-called nuisance geese at several parks was delayed in a city council meeting in Bristol on Wednesday.
City leaders, discussing a variety of options from scrambling up the eggs of unborn goslings to killing adult geese with nitrous oxide gas, decided to push the vote to the next Parks and Rec. meeting, expected to be held on May 15 at 6 p.m.
The complaints about the geese go back years but have picked up in recent months. Concerns range from the geese being aggressive to causing traffic problems to leaving droppings everywhere, which contain toxic contaminants.
“You can’t walk anywhere without getting goose droppings on your feet,” said Rick Carello, the chair of the Bristol Veterans Council.
Bristol’s Veterans Memorial Boulevard Park is a place to honor our nation’s heroes, but for years, a flock of resident geese has desecrated and defecated all over the grounds.
“We understand it’s a really sensitive issue and we don’t want to come across as these evil people that just want to eradicate the geese,” added Carello.
But indeed - that is the proposal.
“Euthanization is definitely on the table this evening,” remarked Bristol Mayor Jeff Caggiano.
Hundreds of people were expected to flock to the city council meeting Wednesday, where the ‘population mitigation’ plan could result in dozens of geese getting gassed.
“They plan to wait until the geese are molting because they can’t fly then and they are more easily captured. They would capture them and put them in a chamber where they would suffocate to death,” explained Annie Hornish, the state director of the U.S. Humane Society.
Bristol’s mayor says it wasn’t the city's first option, but it might be their last. They’ve spent $15,000 on non-lethal measures including putting up statues of predatory birds and signage discouraging feeding.
“They would use the meat from those geese as a food source,” explained Caggiano. “We’re now looking at an invasive species.”
Parkgoers said they saw the issue from both sides of the pond.
“I would hate to see these geese being euthanized. It’s a pleasure coming down and seeing them with their babies and on the other side I’ve been here where there’s been lots of droppings and you have to avoid it,” said Bristol resident Penny Paradis.
Animal experts said solutions should focus on habitat alterations and cleaning.
“Killing only creates cycles of killing. If the real estate is good for geese, other geese are simply going to move in,” said Hornish.
The State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection weighed in. They pointed to a 2003 law that says the commissioner “may destroy or dispose of any undesirable or diseased wildlife in the interest of wildlife management.”
If the plan to cull geese is approved, it would need approval not only from DEEP but also the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service since Canada Geese are federally protected.
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Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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