Gosling killing irks Sandpoint City Beach visitor

SANDPOINT - The city is finding success in using border collies to haze Canada geese at City Beach, but there was some collateral damage earlier this month.

A gosling was mortally wounded by one of the dogs on May 21, much to the dismay of Winona Anderson, who was visiting the beach with her 17-year-old daughter.

"One of them grabbed a larger gosling and brought it up to the grassy area and had squished it," said Anderson, a Boundary County resident.

The dog handler placed the gosling back in the water, where it succumbed to its injuries. Anderson's daughter retrieved the carcass and turned it over to Sandpoint Police.

The dog handler tried to assure some astounded bystanders that his dogs would not harm the geese, but by then the damage was done, according to Anderson.

The city is paying a local dog handler $2,000 to take his border collies to the beach to harass Canada geese that feed on the park's ample grassy areas.

Kim Woodruff, director of the city's Parks and Recreation Department, said the hazing has been going since February and it's making a difference.

"The bottom line is just that we're very pleased with our results. I feel bad about what happened, but it truly was an unintended consequence," Woodruff said.

Canada geese droppings have vexed the city for years and caused the city to purchase a $21,000 piece of equipment that lifts and sifts goose droppings from sandy areas. But it's less effective on grass and hard on the machine, which is towed by a tractor.

The city acquired a motorized grass sweeper attachment to address grassy areas.

But Woodruff said neither implement would do much good if they couldn't get a handle on the sheer volume of droppings at the beach, especially in the vicinity of the picnic shelter.

"We had to get the volume down to a manageable level," Woodruff said.

Woodruff resolved to find a solution after last summer.

"You couldn't step anywhere without stepping in greasy fecal matter. It was bad," said Woodruff.

The use of border collies to haze Canada geese is widely considered to be the most humane method of managing geese, although there is debate in the academic community whether it is ultimately effective in the long term.

The Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management, a research-based wildlife control organization, said goose droppings have the potential to cause public health issues. The droppings have been found to contain parasites such as cryptosporidium and giardia, in addition to bacteria such as E. coli and listeria.

Anderson is also in favor of the concept of using border collies to harass geese, although she contends it is being executed poorly. She said signs should have been put up to advise visitors of the hazing operation and the dogs should have been muzzled and on lunge lines to protect the birds.

"It was bad merchandising. It looked bad. It turned out bad," Anderson said.

Woodruff doesn't have any immediate plans to change the way the operation is run and but is sorry a gosling was killed. He hopes no more geese are injured or killed, but acknowledged that's something he cannot guarantee.

"I feel horrible about this accident, but we hope to continue because we feel it is to the advantage of the public," Woodruff said.