U.S. Govt. OK’s Killing of Goose-Poop Machines

I am not a big fan of animal feces left lying about, whether on sidewalks or parks or at the beach. We even devoted one of our N.Y. Times columns to addressing the problem of dog poop in NYC. But dogs at least have owners, who sometimes pick up after their pets. Wild Canadian geese have no such overseers — and, like the worst sort of tourist imaginable, leave behind their leavings wherever they please. They seem particularly fond of the sort of cultivated lawns where children like to play. In fact, I just returned from a wonderful vacation in Cape Cod where the hotel had a huge lawn where we and everyone else played football, badminton, soccer, etc. And then, one afternoon, the geese descended and just covered it with crap. The management couldn’t do much but shrug its shoulders; we couldn’t do much except hold our noses, and look for someplace else to frolic. But that may all be changing. According to this A.P. article, the U.S. Government has stepped in:

[T]he U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a new rule making it easier for farmers, airports, landowners and public health officials to kill the geese without permits. The new rule went into effect last week. Animal rights activists say there’s got to be a better way to deal with the birds. But people who consider the geese a nuisance are applauding the measure. Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., who has been working to control the geese population for years, said, “This day has been a long time in coming.”