‘The geese gotta go.’ North Carolina town will use border collies to ‘bother’ geese

Fed up with a messy goose problem, a North Carolina town had an idea — border collies.

The town of Carolina Beach is moving forward with an $11,000 contract with a company that brings in border collies to encourage geese to disperse, according to the record of an Aug. 22 town council workshop.

Bruce Oakley, the town manager of Carolina Beach, told McClatchy News in a phone interview that he’s heard “lots of, lots of complaints” about the geese.

Making a mess

One of the main complaints is geese droppings. An adult Canadian goose can produce 2 pounds of poop per day, according to the Detroit Free Press. Town officials have they’ve counted about 100 geese at a time, so the droppings add up.

“On the Saturday before the farmers market we have, the vendors have to shovel to clear the path,” Oakley said.

One town official in particular has been outspoken about the geese.

Council member Mike Hoffer wrote an article called “The Geese Gotta Go,” which was published on his website July 8.

The town has multi-million dollar improvement projects in the works, and the geese aren’t helping matters, according to Hoffer.

“It’s unacceptable to dredge the lake, improve the water quality, install a beautiful new playground, build a new bathroom and renovate the picnic shelter only to keep letting the geese crap all over it,” Hoffer wrote. “It’s gross.”

In his article, he proposed the use of border collies, which the nearby city of Wilmington did to mitigate the goose presence at Airlie Gardens, Star News reported.

The Humane Society approves of using herding dogs as one way to mitigate a goose problem without harming the birds.

“Using techniques developed to manage livestock, dogs are trained to harass geese,” according to the Humane Society’s guide on Solving Problems with Canada Geese. “Geese see the dogs as predators and avoid them. Dogs handled properly put geese in flight and the geese leave an area entirely.”

Oakley told McClatchy News the city council plans to move forward with a company called Goose Masters to address the goose problem. The contract will run October through July, but he said if it’s not working they can stop at any time.

Goose Masters employs trained border collies in “hazing” geese, according to the company’s website.

A community divided

Many people on Facebook expressed opposition to the plan, saying the geese should be left alone.

“(The dogs) don’t actually harm the geese,” Oakley said, addressing residents’ concerns. “They just sort of bother them enough, so they will leave.”

One Carolina Beach resident commented, “I’m pretty sure there are much better uses for the $11,000 that it will cost to achieve nothing. It’s ridiculous if you ask me!”

Oakley said handling the problem this way is expected to be more cost effective in the long run.

“The cost of doing this is a lot cheaper than the power washing we have to do on a regular basis,” Oakley said. “We’d really need to do it almost daily, but we can’t do that, it would be too cost prohibitive. They make such a mess.”

Oakley added a playground is also slated for construction, which is another reason the project should happen now.

“Some do have concerns obviously, but we’re trying to do it as humanely and efficiently as we can.”

This story was originally published September 15, 2023 at 1:51 PM with the headline "‘The geese gotta go.’ North Carolina town will use border collies to ‘bother’ geese."