Don't kill Canada geese in Kelowna, group urges

A humane society in Kelowna, B.C., is up in arms about the city'sdecision to shoot and kill Canada geese blamed for damaging city parks.

Kelowna city hall said the geese have congregated en masse in city parks and are causing damage to park walkways, turf and people's overall enjoyment of the facilities.

City officials have obtained a licence from the Canadian Wildlife Service, part of Environment Canada,to kill up to 50 geese when "they are causing or likely to cause damage to property or pose a health risk," said Ian Wilson, the city's manager of parks services.

The city uses a variety of methods to deter the geese, but theflocks are no longer scared off by firing blanks, Wilson said.Two geese have been shot dead so far.

"Fifty geese is not very many, and we're just using it as one tool one piece of an overall management plan," he said Wednesday.

Sinikka Crosland, president of the Responsible Animal Care Society, said there arebetter ways to chase off the animals than killing them.

"The lives of two geese mean something to a lot of people. Why take any lives at all when there are other modalities available?" she said.

Kelowna faced public outcry last fall when city council hired contractors to cull 2,000 feral rabbits using air rifles.

Some residents complained about seeing the rabbits being stomped on and treated in a cruel way when workers carried out their jobs.

That prompted council to suspend the use of air rifles tocull therabbits. Workers were then asked to lay traps to catch the animals alive, and to give them to rescue groups for adoption.

Shooting geese is different from culling rabbits, Wilson said.

The city isattempting to get rid of all feral rabbits but is just trying to manage the geese, he said.

"The rabbits are an invasive species and we really were trying to remove all of them because of the impact on the community," Wilson said.