A Family of Geese In Minneapolis Park Were Removed and Slaughtered and Some Residents Are Furious

Two breeding pairs of Canadian Geese sought refuge in Loring Park in Minneapolis and many residents who live by the park say they were not mean and were used to people being around. But the Park and Rec. Department took it upon themselves to hire someone to remove these geese from the area permanently. Everyone has their own opinion about geese, they can be very territorial and chase after humans especially when they have young goslings with them, but apparently this pair of geese seemed pretty tame.

According to City Pages last week the Park and Rec Department in Minneapolis rounded up the two pairs of adult geese and all their goslings, the adults were slaughtered for meat and supposedly donated to a food shelf and the goslings were killed and processed for animal feed.

For some residents who witnessed the round up they were horrified. Kay Hanson who owns a business on Harmon Place has watched the female goose sit diligently on her nest since the April blizzards even with snow piling up all around her. Residents around the area say that the geese were very used to humans and would only hiss at dogs or ducks.

Minneapolis Parks has been removing nuisance geese from parks since 1982 and would relocate them up until the mid 1990's when they started to capture and kill the geese. Jeremy Barrick, Park director of environmental stewardship stated that the overpopulation of geese in the Metro area is a problem for planes and they drop bacteria laden feces into the water.

A goose contractor was hired to remove the adults and goslings from the park. It is naturally a tough call since people from these departments do not have the Intel to know what geese are friendly and what ones are a nuisance. I am sure that a new couple of geese will return to the area and this cycle will continue to happen.