So mad

[Marigold2]

Left work at 6:45 pm today. I work at a hospital, there is a pond and geese live there, breed there.
The hospital is built in what was once a cow pasture and the lake and geese have been there for God only knows how long.
The hospital hires someone to scare the geese off several times a year. Today was such a day.
There was the truck (Safe and Humane Goose Chasers)
the border collie was running around the lake and there was a model boat about two feet long on the pond being controlled to chase the geese.
The only geese on the pond at this point was a dad, mom and their 5 little babies about the size of my hand.
I was watching for a while and saw the boat chase the mom and babies, dad was trying to divert the dog away from mom and babies. I was looking for who ever was controlling the boat, I was getting madder and madder.
Poor mom and dad were frantic, dog was running and chasing dad and boat was chasing mom.
Finally I hear a cherry "hello". There stands the numbnut with his control giving me a big smile.
I said " what are you doing?"
I was hired by the hospital to chase the geese away.
You can't chase the mom and her babies, that is wrong.
I am not chasing them.
Yes you are, I have been watching and I saw you. The dad is protecting his family, the babies can't fly away.
Oh I like didn't know that.
Well I can see by looking at you that you are not too bright.
You are welcome to make a report to the hospital and it looks like you will.
Yes I will, you cannot chase a defenseless mother with her babies.
I didn't do that.
Yes you DID, I saw you.
Are you telling me how to do my job?
No but I know what is right and wrong and you are wrong, as I said you are not too bright.
I then walked off in total disgust. I wanted to hit him, but he was big, he had the dog and he was hired by the hospital. I will file a written report against him.
He watched me walk to my car which was about 10 feet away, I turned around and watched him take his boat out of the water.
What a piece of work. I am still so upset. Those poor geese, it was so heartbreaking.
Dad of course would not abandon wife and babies and was risking his own life for them and still his wife and chidren were being attacked.

[cassiesmom]

When I worked in Westmont, there were several little grassy areas in the parking lot - to get people to slow down, and to act as dividers. There was a goose who put a nest on one of them, two years in a row. That building hired a "geese police" firm to try to discourage the geese from nesting, but if they did start building a nest, everyone pretty much left them alone. One year the nest was on the side of the building closest to our office - a bunch of nurses keeping an eye on this goose on her nest. We got the management company to put a plastic cone in the parking space closest to the nest so people wouldn't park there. It was sweet to see the little ones toddling around the lot, heading for the retention pond with their parents.

Then our office moved out to Lisle and that building management hired a firm to aggressively keep the geese off the property. We missed them!

[pomtzu]

From your account of the issue, it seems the man was only doing the job that he was hired to do, as unpleasant as it might seem to some people.
To tell him he wasn't too bright, based on his looks, has nothing to do with humanely trying to chase the geese off. He wasn't trying to kill them...

[moosmom]

You go girl!!! I'm proud of you Marigold and hope you do follow through with the complaint.

[Bonny]

Marigold, If only there would of been snow on the ground. You could of thrown a couple of snowballs at him for good measure. You would think they would let the baby geese mature & they would be out of there someplace else looking for food. Why wait till after they hatch? They could of run the parents off before that. I found a nest by the beaver dam last week that had been raided by coyotes, or raccoons? It is surprising with all the predators how any baby geese survive?

[wombat2u2004]

I'm with you Marigold.
I reckon ya did the right thing.

[Freedom]

DO file the report. AND if you can, file with HIS company as well.

IN that business, he SHOULD know the babies can't leave and chasing the dad and mom is abuse!!!!

Oh heck, report the whole thing to a local SPCA (they are more likely to act than animal control, which will say they don't handle wildlife complaints).

FUMING right with ya!

[momcat]

Way to go! I work in an office complex just outside the city of Trenton. We have about 6 geese that have taken up residence and often come into the courtyard by my building. Nobody bothers them when they come and more often than not we feed them. If they don't come by for a few days everyone asks if they've been seen and hope they're okay.

It's heartbreaking to know that while the father was protecting his family efforts continued to scare them off. Those poor babies need to be with their mommy and daddy so they can learn all they need to know to survive in this cruel world and how to be geese.

Thank you for standing up and speaking out for those who cannot speak for themselves

[Marigold2]

Yes by looking and him, seeing his actions for several minutes I could tell he was none too bright and horribly mean to chase a family. He was enjoying using his motorized boat to scare mommy and babies. That makes him a nitwit in my book.
I judged this man not on what he looked like as I did not see the person who was controlling the boat for several minutes till he said "hello" however his actions are what gave me all the info I needed to make the judgement call. He could have been a she, tall, short, whatever, didn't matter, his actions are what I am referring to.
His job is NOT to terrorize these mommy and babies, it is to get them to leave, but mom and babies are unable to and apperently he did not care about that, having fun with his boat and being mean was the object that day, what he did other days I can not speak to, only what I saw yesterday.

From your account of the issue, it seems the man was only doing the job that he was hired to do, as unpleasant as it might seem to some people.
To tell him he wasn't too bright, based on his looks, has nothing to do with humanely trying to chase the geese off. He wasn't trying to kill them...

[pomtzu]

This appears to be an unfortunate situation all around. IMO - the hospital is as much to blame for the incident (if not more), than their choice of who they hired to rid the geese from the area.

If they do this several times each year, then:

1. Why did they wait till there were babies? They could have done it prior to this time, and the adults would have been gone. End of issue.

2. Don't they check out people they hire to do work for them?? Perhaps if they knew what this guy's methods were, they would have found someone else. Then again - maybe it was just a matter of low bidder and they didn't care how he got the job done.

Either way - shame on them!!! What's the issue with a couple of geese on the pond anyway? Surely they weren't hurting anyone, and would have left when the babies could fly.

And as far as they guy that was hired - shame on him too!

If you do file a complaint, I'd be sure to note that the hospital should own up to their share of negligence in the whole fiasco.