# Why do people hate on Canada geese? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 2, 2023, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008 "2023-04-02T01:37:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/41 "2023-04-02T11:55:47Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > As for the honking, I love it. They should be arriving from down south soon, and they normally congregate on the ice on the lake, and they’re all honking at each other. In my mind, I think they’re doing the equivalent of “How was your flight?” “Great! How was yours!” “Really good - hey, there’s Charlie! How was Orlando?” etc. for a few days. Yes. This. But there’s also some geesely (geesly? geesley?) politics in there. You can sure tell when someone has his (probably his, it’s hard to tell by looking, but sure the way to bet) feathers in a bundle. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/42 "2023-04-02T12:10:42Z")
On a couple business campuses near me, the groundskeeping staff power wash the goose turds off the sidewalks daily…JUST off the sidewalks. Gives new meaning to the admonition to “stay on the path.” Both sides of every walk are inches thick in wet goose crap for the entire time the geese are in town. Don’t drop your phone. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/43 "2023-04-02T12:55:01Z")
[Today’s _Beetle Bailey_ is on point](https://epub.stripes.com/?issue=SCOM_EUR_310323). ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/44 "2023-04-02T13:30:44Z")
We need more of this: [[Grandma grabs goose by it’s neck - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srC9irH4aLA)] ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/45 "2023-04-02T13:30:57Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Something happened to me that is part of what annoys people. They slowly paddle their way across a street at a crosswalk. You can find videos on YouTube with the same thing happening: I’ve yet to see Canada geese observing crosswalk lines. I don’t mind relatively brief traffic holdups so that goose couples with their goslings can cross the road. It’s sort of endearing. But Canada geese as a whole are inexplicably protected pooping pissants. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/46 "2023-04-02T13:58:30Z")
One of these bastards attacked me when I was jogging on base. I was jogging, minding my own business, when one runs toward me, jumps into the air, and hits me with its wing. I swatted at it and kept running. And then it did it again. I kept running and got the hell away from it. ---
**Author:** ![Keith1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6de8d8/32.png) [@Keith1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keith1)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/47 "2023-04-02T14:01:35Z")
Had Canada Geese around most of my life. Still do. Never had a problem with them. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/48 "2023-04-02T14:02:53Z")
Geese are apparently no match for [a dedicated border collie](https://www.wildgoosechasers.com/bird-control-removal-services/how-remove-canada-geese/goose-dog-service/). ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/49 "2023-04-02T14:22:26Z")
You know what the difference between Yankees & Damn Yankees is? Yankees go home As @Loach indicated, they _used_ to just migrate. They stopped at some park/lake/river along the way, looked around & said, “Hey, this ain’t so bad”…& stayed. No visas, no immigration, no nuffin’. Overstayed their welcome, shit everywhere, but because they’re considered a migratory species you can’t do anything to get rid of 'em. Yeah, you can do something like border collies to scram them off of your property but they don’t leave the area, they just move to your neighbor’s or the local park. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/50 "2023-04-02T14:33:27Z")
Why has no one mentioned how attractive geese poop is to most dogs? I avoid a beautiful riverside park, filled with ancestral trees and beautiful views. Not so much the geese, per se, although they are loud and sometimes aggressive, it’s the poop. Take your eyes off your dog for a second, like to take in the riverside view, and when you look back your dog is gleefully rolling in goose poop. Like it’s a bed of freaking roses! Other dog owners I know claim their dogs do it too! You can train them not to, but it only works while you’re attentive. Take the dog for a lovely walk, come back and have to bathe the damn dog! Grrrrr… ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/51 "2023-04-02T14:49:20Z")
I don’t mind the geese too much, they don’t linger long on our all sports lake. But early in the season there’s always that idiot new to the area who thinks it’s cute to send their kids to the shoreline with a bag of bread crusts to feed the geese. Ha ha ha ha Yeah well sure plant grass down to the waters edge and it’s like rolling out the red carpet for geese colonies. Please keep the shorelines natural. No you don’t need to feed the fecking wildlife. And lay off hitting golf balls into the lake assholes. Swans, wish there were more natives,l trumpeters it’s the mute swans I think are non native. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/52 "2023-04-02T15:11:53Z")
I was on a local bike trail and there were some geese near the trail. I moved over as much as I could (the trail was water on both sides at this point, and the goose not only hissed at me but charged towards me. Like this: [![](https://www.talkparrots.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.talkparrots.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=24025&stc=1&d=1548773953) ](https://www.talkparrots.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.talkparrots.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=24025&stc=1&d=1548773953) Brian ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/53 "2023-04-02T15:17:17Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Form 300 feet away they are Majestic Nature Personified. Dedicated to their life partner, gloriously and endlessly garrulous, and beautiful of shape and graceful of behavior. Their hatchlings through teenagers are that heart-warming combination of cute & ugly that all youthful birds are; but mostly cute. And you can’t help but admire the dedicated parenting going on. > [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > T. H. White held geese up as the epitome of all that is wonderful and free in _The Once and Future King_–making me wonder if he had ever actually seen a goose. He might have seen lots of them, as I mostly do – from 300’ or more away. I like them. But while a lot of them nest in this general area, and I sometimes get a pair or so on the irrigation pond (which is too small to attract them in significant numbers), I don’t have to deal with large flocks up close. – The ones on the pond avoid me; not only don’t they attack, they fly off when they see me coming, though I’m careful not to move directly at them. They were here first, though, and should keep existing. > [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > In terms of aggression, from all I’ve heard, it’s swans who are the real bullies anong water birds, but it sounds like Canada geese are right behind them. And then there are the champions for driving other species (and often other members of their own) out: humans. > [@Loach](#): > > This article explains why they don’t migrate anymore. That’s interesting. I had thought it was climate change: most of the Finger Lakes freeze over a lot more rarely than they used to. I wonder whether both factors have an influence? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/54 "2023-04-02T15:26:09Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > They were here first, though, and should keep existing. In many instances, Canada geese were _not_ here first. “If you’ve played on a soccer field or strolled past a golf course in the United States, you’ve doubtless seen gaggles of Canada geese terrorizing those public spaces. These geese were actually put here by state agencies in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s as part of public programs to create Canada goose populations after nearly hunting the bird to extinction. Because these birds are all protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, it proves surprisingly difficult to get the geese to leave.” > **[The goose that conquered America](https://www.vox.com/videos/2019/4/23/18511314/canada-goose-history)** > > The Canada goose is a nuisance. This is how it all started. There are similarities between the geese population explosion and the great increase in deer numbers. They’ve expanded into near-ideal habitat that we unwittingly created for them. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/55 "2023-04-02T15:38:30Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > These geese were actually put here by state agencies in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s as part of public programs to create Canada goose populations **after nearly hunting the bird to extinction**. Bolding mine. That’s re-create. The birds were still there first; they’d just become temporarily locally extinct due to human behavior. The deer were also there all along. The numbers of deer in many areas have drastically increased due to a combination of changes in habitat and removal of predators; but those areas were still generally part of their original range. – coyote have actually increased their range; but that’s most likely due to that abovementioned removal of predators, which created vacuums they’ve gradually been moving into. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/56 "2023-04-02T15:47:00Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > I’ve yet to see Canada geese observing crosswalk lines. I’ve been trying to post an answer to this. Whenever I do, I get a message that says “An error occurred: Sorry, you can’t embed media items in a post.” I have no idea what that means. Can anyone explain this to me? Below is the URL for the video I’ve been trying to put into this post which I have split into five lines, hoping that it will allow me to post it: https :// www.you tube. com /watch ? v=hu1L3c6gP3s ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/57 "2023-04-02T15:47:00Z")
I hate geeses to pieces! They have taken up permanent residence in a lot of local parks and other open areas in Wisconsin. My youngest kid’s best friend in middle school slipped on goose poop on their school grounds and fractured her femur. There’s a reason for the phrase “slicker than goose shit”. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/58 "2023-04-02T15:55:09Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > [@Jackmannii](#): > > > > These geese were actually put here by state agencies in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s as part of public programs to create Canada goose populations **after nearly hunting the bird to extinction**. > > Bolding mine. > > That’s re-create. The birds were still there first; they’d just become temporarily locally extinct due to human behavior. The point you’re missing is that Canada geese were _deliberately introduced_ into a number of areas where they had not existed before, as well as expanding into many locations thanks to agricultural practices that favored their population explosion. You have a slightly better argument as regards deer. But in that case too, human activities have led to establishment of deer [in places where few to none had been seen before](https://www.americanheritage.com/return-white-tailed-deer). Absence of predators, competition with native species and conflicts with humans are ultimately bad news for these creatures and the environment. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/59 "2023-04-02T16:00:15Z")
Another of their irksome habits is the traffic jams they cause as they traverse, on foot, from the grass or parking lot they’ve taken over to the water, and back…for the 150th time that day. Ever seen anybody cross a street after you’ve yielded to them walk deliberately, spitefully, slowly so as to give you maximum delay? At least people don’t ( generally ) excrete out cubic yards of greenish brown semi-solid glop. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008/60 "2023-04-02T16:09:37Z")
Our house backs onto a stormwater lake in the city. Every spring we get _hundreds_ of Canada Geese nesting here. Yes, they are noisy, and can be aggressive. And there is lots of poop on the sidewalks. We have to watch our border collies when we are walking them - if there’s a fresh poop in eating range, they’ll sometimes lunge for a snack. Still, we love them. We get to watch them nesting, parading around their goslings, pairing up, etc. One silly goose seems to try to attract a mate with a nest in a neighbor’s front yard by a busy road, and it never works. I guess the lady geese aren’t interested in a slum nest by a road when the cooler geese are nesting beside the water. Seeing that lonely goose sitting on a little piece of grass when we walk by always seems a little sad. We also have coyotes now, and at least one family of them lives on the lake starting in spring. Sometimes they’ll go for a goose, igniting a huge honking cacaphony. There are always people coming down with bread to give them. This is a bad idea. Not only does it attract more geese, but bread is really not good for them. One neightbor around the lake throws pans of _bird seed_ over their fence for the geese. Geese don’t eat bird seed, but pigeons, seagulls, grackles, magpies and other nuisance birds do, and the area behind their house looks hottible. All the grass is gone, poop is everywhere, and there can be dozens of gulls and other birds flying around it. I prefer the geese. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-on-canada-geese/982008.md?page=4)