DENVER – A controversial method to reduce the Canada geese population across the city is over – at least for the remainder of the year.
An official with Denver Parks and Recreation said Thursday the permit that allowed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to capture the geese and ship them to be processed as food for needy families capped at 2,200 geese for the whole state.
A total of 1,600 geese were captured and shipped to be processed for consumption across four Denver parks, the official said. The rest of the 6,000 geese were rounded up throughout the state Thursday, the official added.
It’s unclear how long it took the USDA to meet the quota, but Denverite was the first local news outlet to bring the practice to light late last month.
Parks and Rec. will continue to implement their geese management program during the summer and fall of this year by using a Goosinator and by spraying corn oil on geese eggs so they don’t hatch, according to the official.
The practice of catching and processing the geese as food – which is not at all new – was met with outrage by some Denver residents, who called for the culling to be banned, particularly because geese cannot fly during this time of year.
About 100 people from Canada Geese Protection Denver showed up to Wash Park over the weekend to protest the culling and ask for more transparency from city officials.
