Goose Poo Problem
contact March 2nd, 2009
From upi:
“Dogs are now banned from Toronto’s Lake Ontario beaches but there remains a persistent problem of some 3,000 Canada geese defecating every few minutes.
Carol Guy of the City of Toronto’s Waterfowl Management Program said the recent ban of dogs is a small step toward reducing E. coli contamination along some 30 miles of the lakefront but the stubborn goose population that doesn’t migrate south for the winter is still a headache, the Toronto Sun reported.
“Each bird defecates every 6 minutes and that is approximately … 1 pound of goose poo every day,” Guy said. “You multiply that by 3,000 and it’s a considerable impact.”
The city has a program in which workers coat goose eggs with mineral oil to prevent them from hatching but Environment Canada waterfowl biologist Jack Hughes said it’s a losing battle.
“They’re definitely increasing,” he told the Sun. “We’ve estimated presently that they’re increasing at about 8 percent per year.”
Some 1,300 geese were captured, caged and relocated by trucks from city parks last year, and the city also pays a woman with four trained dogs to herd the flocks away from beaches, the report said.”
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