Going to need a good lawyer

[TPFKA@W]

I fed the geese underneath the "Please don't feed the geese & ducks" sign.

To be fair I had already given the geese the better part of a box of crackers when the husband pointed out my transgression, I had not seen the sign, or if I did see it nothing registered.
It was all caught on camera. Greenfield, Indiana wants me, lord I can't go back there.

What is the world coming to when you can't go to a park and feed the geese? These were domestic geese too, not the Canadian ones.

I say no harm no fowl.

[Joe Guy]

[RayThom]

What is the world coming to when you can't go to a park and feed the geese? These were domestic geese too, not the Canadian ones.
I say no harm no fowl.

Domestic or Canadian -- they all shit all over the place.
http://www.ohiogeesecontrol.com/facts-a ... ada-geese/

[wesw]

I have never eaten a goose. are Canada geese tasty? I may have the opportunity to fill my freezer with them.

my son lives near a farmer who has a resident goose problem .

[MajGenl.Meade]

Canada geese - not "Canadian"

( wesw )

And amongst the reasons to ban the feeding of water fowl is that we humans give them bad crap which hurts them. Bread is definitely out - don't know about crackers. Another reason is that it can get them too accustomed to humans - some humans attract them with food and then kick them for fun. Other times, geese have been known to injure small children (either by accident or aggressively) .

[Lord Jim]

I'm with @W...

People have been feeding the ducks down at the pond (they call it a lake but if it's not big enough to take a canoe or a row boat out on, it's a pond in my book) in the park next to our house for years, and they're doing just fine...

Forget about this one Meade, and go shoo the kids off your lawn...

[MajGenl.Meade]

LR - expert on nutrition for birds

NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation - bunch of ignoramuses
http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7001.html

BBC - don't know what they're reporting at all
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-31903778

The Grauniad - absolutely quackers
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... vationists

Humane Society - nobodies without a clue
http://www.humanesociety.org/news/magaz ... rmful.html

[Lord Jim]

LR - expert on nutrition for birds

I don't know what Long Run's position is on this, but I am a lifelong expert on the subject of Things I Can See With My Own Two Eyes...

[TPFKA@W]

I know something of geese from first hand experience. They have stomachs of iron and live a long time even where they get into food they are not supposed to have according to the experts. Of course I lived on a farm and we fed our dogs everything they now say they are not supposed to have and the dogs seemed to live a lot longer (17 years old in 2 cases of breeds that should have been gone years before) than they should have given the number of grapes and raisins they got, along with the table scraps that had some sort of onion in them.

What will I do with my retirement if I can't give the geese and ducks a few snacks?

[rubato]

Feeding the ducks/geese is a minimally harmful activity which gives people great pleasure and even a little exercise when the geese charge and bite them. ( I never get tired of that! Always a good laugh seeing a 180lb person fleeing a 10 lb goose.)

Its not like feeding coyotes, bears &c which is dangerous.

If you don't want people to feed them bread then install vending machines which dispense duck food which is (in the opinions of tiresome meddlers) more nutritious.

Going to the park to feed the ducks is a reason for people to value parks and support paying taxes to maintain them.


yrs,
rubato

[Guinevere]

The neighborhood dogs fed themselves our geese. No more geese.

As for feeding them, it does create dependence, which creates flocks of geese that end up pooping all over parks and chasing kids. Weigh the harms and make your own decision.

Fair or fowl, @W, ofter a quick look at the Greenfield Indiana code, it looks like at worst you'd have a $5-$25 non-criminal ticket. I wouldn't worry about putting all of your eggs into that basket, and I'd let it ride.

[TPFKA@W]

Feeding the ducks/geese is a minimally harmful activity which gives people great pleasure and even a little exercise when the geese charge and bite them. ( I never get tired of that! Always a good laugh seeing a 180lb person fleeing a 10 lb goose.)

Its not like feeding coyotes, bears &c which is dangerous.

If you don't want people to feed them bread then install vending machines which dispense duck food which is (in the opinions of tiresome meddlers) more nutritious.

Going to the park to feed the ducks is a reason for people to value parks and support paying taxes to maintain them.


yrs,
rubato

I like the idea of vending machines except that I have seen how that goes in little petting areas for goats. The goats are clever little beasties and have their mouths over the bottom of those machines ready to gulp the feed as soon as your quarter hits the slot. Geese are also clever and would probably hang around the machines ready to shake down all who come around. Geese are quite aggressive and probably scare the crap out of the uninitiated. I am on to their surly natures and know if they charge to grab them by the neck and they are done. It probably wouldn't hurt to wear welding gloves the first time you try that maneuver. Swans are worse, I wouldn't even bother attempting to grab a swan.

They were Breton crackers, if that makes the critics feel better.

And Guin I giggled out loud that you looked up the city code. You are lawyer to the bone.

[wesw]

oldr? anybody? do they taste good?

[TPFKA@W]

Well Guin's neighborhood dogs seem to appreciate the taste.

[Guinevere]

And Guin I giggled out loud that you looked up the city code. You are lawyer to the bone.

I'm curious, I like helping people, and I like what I do. I'm the lawyer that other lawyers ask for advice, or hire to represent them. What can I say, it's working for me.

[MajGenl.Meade]

LR - expert on nutrition for birds

I don't know what Long Run's position is on this, but I am a lifelong expert on the subject of Things I Can See With My Own Two Eyes...

So you checked those links then?

[rubato]

Canada geese are attracted to lawns because they eat grass. They are major pests for parks and golf courses around here and up in Oregon they plague people growing grass for sod or seed.

Around here they hire people with groups of border collies to harass them and 'move them along'.


yrs,
rubato

[oldr_n_wsr]

oldr? anybody? do they taste good?

Never had the pleasure of eating wild geese but my BIL has. He said htey are a bit like wild turkey but less fatty. The geese he has eaten were actual migrating geese, not the ones that seem to have found north east weather tolerable. Those might be a little more fatty as they don't do the thousand mile trek every 1/2 year.

Around here they hire people with groups of border collies to harass them and 'move them along'.

Yeah we have them too. They move the geese around from place to place and back to the original area and start all over. Job security.

[Big RR]

About a year ago, we had one set up a nest in a parking lot; the town/state basically roped off about 25% of the parking in the strip mall to accommodate the nesting--as if we need more Canadian geese.

[Guinevere]

They, their nests, their eggs, are all protected under the federal MBTA (Migratory Bird Treaty Act). As has been mentioned several times in this thread, the real problem is that the Canada Goose is no longer migrating, which is impacting and changing the population:

http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/curre ... angse.html

The Atlantic Population (AP) of Canada geese was once considered the largest Canada goose population in North America and the staple of waterfowl hunters in the Atlantic Flyway. Winter indices approached one million birds by the mid-1980s and annual harvests often exceeded those of any duck species. However, between 1986 and 1995, the number of wintering Canada geese in the Atlantic Flyway declined from 900,000 to 650,000. This alarming decline occurred despite a rapid increase in numbers of local breeding or “resident” Canada geese.

Breeding surveys of key AP nesting areas in northern Quebec documented a more precipitous decline in AP numbers from 118,000 nesting pairs recorded in 1988 to 90,000 in 1993, 40,000 in 1994, and 29,000 pairs in 1995. This dramatic change in numbers of AP geese, greater than 75 percent in less than a decade, prompted State, Federal, and Provincial wildlife agencies in 1995 to suspend the sport hunting season of AP geese in the United States and in the Canadian Provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

Today, waterfowl managers are faced with the challenge of restoring AP geese as quickly as possible to meet current and future resource demands. At the same time, resident geese are increasing exponentially, now exceeding a million birds in the Atlantic Flyway. Crop damage and public nuisance complaints are at an all time high and are increasing annually. Thus, wildlife managers have contrasting management problems with two similar but yet, distinctly different populations of Canada geese.

Populations of Canada geese are often difficult to delineate and manage independently, especially when they overlap during migration or intermingle on their wintering areas. Because of their similarity in appearance, both size and plumage markings, the general public is often confused by the idea of separate populations. However, biologists are well acquainted with several distinct groups of Canada geese (Branta canadensis spp.), which are distributed widely throughout the temperate and arctic regions of Canada and the United States.

And if you want to shoot a wild goose (which tastes ok, but I prefer wild duck) you need the appropriate permit or you're just a lousy poacher and could be fined up to $15,000. If you take (or attempt to take) wild migratory game birds by baiting, you can be subject to jail and a $100,000 fine. So, don't feed them and then shoot them or otherwise try to take one home (for a meal, or otherwise).