OAKLAND COUNTY, Michigan. – After 50 years of removing and reintroducing Canada geese from communities around Michigan, the state is changing course.

A new policy quietly began in late summer to euthanize geese that needed to be removed.

If a Canada goose needs to be removed from a water source, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources will no longer take them to a new home. The ministry said it had no choice but to kill them.

About 80 years ago, Canada geese were nearly extinct in Michigan; now their number exceeds 300,000. Causes more conflict with people.

“Their population may increase; there are no natural predators,” Andy Sarkinsian said. “Especially if you have islands in your lake where foxes and raccoons can’t reach their dens.”

Sargsyan lives on Lake Sherwood in Commerce Township, where the goose population has boomed this summer.

“We closed our beaches due to E. coli issues,” Sarkisian said. “This population released 4-5 tons of feces into the lake, causing health problems.”

Sherwood Lake did what many other lake associations have done in recent years and rounded up the geese.

“Collection was our last resort. We did everything we could to deter them — flashing lights, banners, goose strings, barrier zones, nest destruction — but the population still grew too much,” Sarkisian said.

In June, A team from Goose Busters It was brought in to carry out collection operations.

Larry Carsell, a retired Vietnam veteran who now rescues waterfowl, watched the geese gather.

“People can be pretty cruel,” Carsell said. “They pushed a dozen or so groups, came back, got another big group of about 80 people and brought them up and separated them from their parents and they were all honking their horns and everything was throwing them into the trailer. “You can tell they’re upset, they have feelings, people don’t realize it, but they’re aware of it.”

The DNR has removed and relocated geese since 1972, but Carsell and other waterfowl advocates tracked them to a separate location when they heard this time would be different.

“You could see the workers setting things up to accommodate the geese, and I finally went out and talked to them and the DNR guy said, ‘Yes, we’re gassing these geese,’” Carsell recalled.

The DNR said it was a humane way to deal with the geese, but Carsell disagreed.

“This is an escape. Geese can hold their breath for a long time. They stay under water for a long time. This carbon dioxide burns their throats and lungs, and they suffer for up to half an hour because they can hold their breath so long,” Carsell said. “There are many things you can do other than rounding them up and killing them.”

Killing waterfowl is not new for the DNR. Mute swans are often killed, sometimes shot, but unlike mute swans, Canada geese are not an invasive species.

Barbara Avers, a waterfowl and wetland specialist with the DNR, said there is no suitable habitat left to relocate them. He said there are other reasons why geese are euthanized; This includes the fact that the geese will not be able to stay in the new habitats.

“The biggest and most concerning reason for this is that there was a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu that emerged in North America a few years ago, and it was something that was circulating when that happened,” Avers said. “We canceled all relocation activities because we did not want to potentially spread the virus throughout the state.”

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Carsell believes Michiganders would do more if they knew what was happening to the geese.

Goose Busters removed the geese but did not euthanize them. An official from the company said that they have not killed a single goose so far and that they have stopped working with the state on the new policy, which has dramatically affected business life.

You can read Michigan DNR’s full policy below: