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FLINTSTONE, MD (USA) — Besieged by legions of illegal
immigrants who vandalize the crops, defecate on local beaches, parks and golf
courses, and raise an unmistakably fowl racket down at the
waterfront docks and public picnic areas, Baltimore County authorities have decided to bring in
the Border Patrol.
...Border Collie Patrol, that
is. And of course, the aforementioned squawking squatters are none other than
the estimated 100,000 Canadian geese who have recently settled in the area.
Drawn in by the abundant crops, well-meant handouts and other scraps
worth scavenging, these Canadian geese have ceased their seasonal
migration back up north and have decided to expatriate to the United
States for good. Unfortunately, they tend to contaminate the
waterfront regions and swimming beaches with fecal coliform bacteria,
causing health risks that forced the closing of several beaches last
year.
Maryland state law provides for federal
applications to round up and kill certain wildlife deemed as a pests,
and in fact last year, six out of the nine area state parks were granted
permission to carry out such extermination policies on the geese. But as the Star
Democrat reports, "the traditional approach was an
'unpalatable solution' with suburban nature lovers."
So what's next? Why, send in the dogs,
of course.
"This town ain't big enough for
the 100,001 of us," says a fowl with a foul attitude.
(Photo: GeesePeace)
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 Meet
"Kemp", a three-year-old Border Collie who patrols Clopper
Lake in Seneca Creek State Park, Gaithersburg. Kemp is one of the
dogs hired by the state in a $24,000 contract to clean up the parks in a
nature-friendly way.
(Photo: Star
Democrat)
The program is overseen by the
Virginia-based organization GeesePeace, a non-profit group that found an effective and
widely-commended
means of dealing
with such wildlife problems two years ago when the same mess befell Lake Barcroft
in Virginia's Fairfax County.
According to the the Star Democrat,
using dogs to harass resident geese is nothing new, but this marks the
first time the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has endorsed using
the approach.
Richard Dolesh, director of the DNR
Forest, Wildlife and Heritage Service comments, "There was
skepticism on our part to the program, but to round up and gas geese is
a public relations nightmare. People weren't cooperating on other
projects. We finally said, 'We're going to take all lethal options off
the table' and we developed a consensus for the program being used
now."
Bob Beckett of the State Parks
Department testifies to the effectiveness of the dog initiative, saying,
"There are definitely fewer droppings. The areas are
cleaner."
Mark this day on your calendars,
folks. This is one of the rare occasions where you'll see
fecal-conscious park administrators applauding a bunch of dogs running
around.
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Headlines
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