“Stoke's choice of a goose control method may have been ill-considered, but the intention to eliminate all or most of the geese was spot-on. City parks are amenities created and maintained by municipal taxes and are intended for the enjoyment of city's residents. Unless the goose population is brought under control very soon, the parks will become unusable. The average Canada goose defaecates every 11 minutes [fact]. That's a lot of goose poop in only one day, and from only one goose, and remember, geese do not pick up after themselves.

Ironically, it's the goose-feeding, goose lovers who are the sources of the problem. For any goose population control method to be successful, the well-meaning, but ill-informed, goose-huggers must be stopped from feeding the geese. I live close to one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world and every summer many of our swimming beaches are off-limits because of pollution, much of it attributable to the local Canada goose population. Because of the well-intentioned people who feed them, a large proportion of our goose population no longer migrates south when the freeze- up comes. Consequently, the problem snowballs.

The business of eliminating, or at least of controlling, the goose population should not be as difficult nor as messy as blasting them with a shotgun. Following the hatching a of the eggs, the adult geese go into a moult and become flightless. At that point they would be easy to herd together and could be euthanized humanely,using the same equipment as is used to euthanize birds in an avian flu outbreak. It's not rocket science, but first a particular sector of of the population must stop trying to live in its own version of Disneyland and face the reality that is the goose problem.

Like some of the residents of Stoke, some New Yorkers also had a love affair with Canada geese, until that time two years ago when a flock of Canada geese brought down that jetliner. It was due only to the incredible skill of the pilot that he was able to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River. New York City authorities are now dedicated to eliminating the bulk of the Canada goose population. Stoke does not have a large international airport, but it did have some beautiful parks, which will soon be unusable.

Bernie Gotham”

“You will find that all agencies that have the best interests of birds and animals are in agreement with the cull. However that does not make it right. I take it that we are referring to the recent cull of geese in Longton park where on the day after the gunman in the Lake District ran amok killing people with a firearm the people living near Longton park were awoken with the sound of shotguns firing at six in the morning.

Councils are not known for using common sense if they were they would all be run efficiently, they blunder through life from one blunder to the next. As for Van De Laarshot may I remind you all that this was done on his watch and so must be made accountable for this vile action that has deprived children from seeing these magnificent birds. No doubt we shall all hear from someone that these birds make such a mess that they must die, well perhaps they do, its a good job that no one culls human beings for making a mess, as not many human beings would be left in the world.”

“I have to agree with Robert Stone, Whoever was responsible for this idiotic unscientific decision should be sacked or at the very least the whole affair should be publicly investigated. This means that whoever advised of the decison should be made to give, in detail, the reasons why. His or her line manager should have to justify that decision in scientific terms and finally those who authorised the decision should be made accountable and if necessary all should lose their jobs.

My guess is that some jobsworth made a hasty gut decision which was not okayed by anyone or even discussed and acted on before any real sensible consultations took place. This in itself is a first considering how long it takes this council to act on other matters!

There is light at the end of the tunnel though. Like him or loathe him, John van der Laarshot is getting to grips with unacceptable practices such as this where stupid decisions are made without reference to an meaningful information. Its just a shame the geese had to suffer to highlight such crass bad decision making.”