Parks department uses barks to give cleanup effort more bite

What they saw was about a dozen honking geese flapping their wings and making ripples in the water as they took flight. On their tails was a border collie at the bow of a motorboat, wearing an orange life vest and wagging its tail as it yapped and yapped.


		Karen Ducey / P-I
	Billie, with owner Bob Jones, barks at geese at Green Lake as part of an effort to drive the poo-spewing birds from some of Seattle's most heavily used parks. The border collie goes after the geese on land and water, sometimes jumping in and swimming after them.

Hoping to stem public complaints about goose poop at some of Seattle's most heavily used parks, the Progressive Animal Welfare Society started trying to scare away geese last summer with the help of Bob Jones and his dog, Billie. In return, the city's parks department agreed not to have any geese euthanized for two years.

Complaints about goose droppings at parks have decreased, according to the city. But Jones thought Billie could do better than yapping at the geese from shore. So this year, Bob and Billie found a boat.

As the boat approached, the geese flew low over the water to the other side of the lake. The boat, steered by city parks employee Fleming Brainerd, followed, and as it got close to the geese near the park's bleachers, Billie began waving her tail again.

"Yap. Yap. Yap," she yapped.

"We're going to try the boat," said Jones.

He picked up a remote control speedboat, set it into the water, and with glee, sent it toward the geese. Honking in protest, the geese flew back toward where the family had been pedal-boating.

When the boat caught up with them again, Jones let Billie jump in. Billie swam after the geese, doing the doggie paddle.

Jones said he and Billie will continue chasing the geese for several days, until they get the message. The goal, said Donna Diduch, PAWS' geese program manager, is to get the birds to fly to other parts of the city or less heavily used areas in parks, such as the wooded area at Seward Park. The animal rights group is harassing geese and cleaning up their messes at Green Lake, South Lake Union Park, Matthews Beach, Gas Works Park and Madison Beach

The harassment can work in keeping geese from going to certain areas, agreed Roger Woodruff, director of the wildlife maintenance program in Washington and Alaska for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. However, he said that harassment alone does not work. The department, as well as the state and Puget Sound cities, stopped euthanizing geese in the 1990s but saw the population double -- too many for harassment to have much of an impact.

The USDA began euthanizing geese again, and the population has gone down to more manageable levels.

Woodruff worried that if cities such as Seattle act on their own to stop having geese euthanized, the population will grow again. The harassment will just drive them to other cities.


		Karen Ducey / P-I
	In employing the plan to have Billie harass the geese under a program run by the Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), the city has agreed not to euthanize any geese for at least two years.

Thus far, though, Woodruff hadn't heard of complaints from other cities about geese coming from Seattle. No one seems to know exactly where the geese are going.

Jones called Billie back and lifted the dripping dog back into the boat. The geese, apparently tired of the harassment, flew high in a V-formation away from the park. "When you see that V, they're leaving," Brainerd said.

Jones patted the dog. "Yeah, you got them, Billie," he said.

"Good girl."

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