Foster City is moving forward with a plan to kill 100 Canadian geese after city leaders say the animals are a nuisance, and their other options aren’t working.
“You can’t even walk around without stepping in it,” said George Saliga of Foster City, talking about the poop geese leave behind. “It also has a bad smell to it.”
The city said it’s a public health risk since the poop-dotting sidewalks and waterfronts have increased the level of E. coli in the city waterways.
“We have a little one, he is almost two now,” said Evelyn Saliga of Foster City. “He even picked up poop one time and almost put it in his mouth and we had to stop him.”
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The city said the geese population has doubled in the past two years and humane methods to get rid of them haven’t worked.
So on Monday, the city council voted to move forward with the plan to get permits so if they need to, they can kill up to a third of the geese population -- a total of 100 birds.
“If there was another way to do it, that would be great but it doesn’t seem like any of the other solutions have been working so far,” said George.
Advocates, however, said that if the city gets rid of them, more will still come back.
The issue has been met with protests from animal advocates.
They propose other options, like installing fences between the waterways and grassy areas.
Even using new laser systems to shoo the birds away.
“All of the non-lethal methods they took, they didn’t really do them right or well,” said geese advocate Erik Allen.
Geese lovers around the country are keeping an eye on the issue.
“I was devastated to hear the news,” said Lisa Levinson, campaigns director of In Defense of Animals.
The animal protection league of New Jersey announced it is offering to pay for a non-lethal goose removal program for Foster City. Anything to stop the killing.
“We had about 15,000 people send in letters to the Foster City Council, and encourage them to try non-lethal means,” said Levinson. “So what they’re doing is going against public opinion.”
NBC Bay Area reached out to the city to find out when the geese might be removed and have not heard back.
