Dogs: No; Geese: OK
26
June
6/26/2008:
Most of us know there is a geese problem over at Maxwell Place park. Disgusting and unsanitary droppings all over the place. With no dogs allowed anymore, the geese like to call MP their new home.
Well, help is now here!
Introducing the Geese Police
I had a chance to speak with Kurt (and his companion Meg - the “herding” Border Collie) this week to find out what’s being done about this nagging “quality of life” problem plaguing many residents.
For starters, this isn’t the first time the Geese Police have been in Hoboken. Maxwell Place had called them in during the construction phase of the mega-condominium project, but had canceled the contract once the geese were gone.
Since then, the disgusting foul have returned, and Maxwell Place management re-hired the “Geese B Gone” crew earlier in June.
From the Geese Police website:
“Our handlers are specially trained to work and properly control the dog using special techniques developed by Geese Police. In addition, our handlers are educated on the behavior of the Canada geese and their migratory, nesting and breeding habits. With this training they are also able to educate the public ensuring the most successful goose control program available.”
Kurt said that himself (and a fellow crew member) come to the site between two and five times per day to chase these pesky critters away. (Wouldn’t allowing “regular” dogs accomplish the same feat? For free?)
He uses two methods for scaring the birds: His faithful dog Meg, and a plastic bottle filled with golf balls.
I asked him what happened to the dog cutouts that were there previously, and he indicated that those aren’t effective at all, as “geese are smarter than you think.”
Howell, NJ based Geese Police also have other customers along the river, such as in Jersey City and Weehawken.
Hey, at least it isn’t paid for with taxpayer dollars!
PHOTO GALLERY (HOLD MOUSE OVER IMAGE TO NAVIGATE - 5 PHOTOS IN THIS SET)
SEE PREVIOUS UPDATES AFTER THE JUMP…
(Hoboken Geese, continued…)
5/19/2008 Update:
I’ve received over 30 emails about the goose droppings over at Maxwell Place park, all with pretty much the same sentiment. The most recent one said: “It really is very gross and a health hazard for children, especially playing in the grass where you can’t see it as well.”
And another: “Our Mayor and town government is useless. Unless there is a ribbon-cutting involved, they could care less. I know how I’m voting next year!”
Here’s a few more reader-submitted pictures. See the previous updates after the jump.
PHOTO GALLERY (HOLD MOUSE OVER IMAGE TO NAVIGATE - 3 PHOTOS IN THIS SET)
5/15/2008:
We all know there’s an ongoing battle between dog-lovers and dog-haters, and Hoboken has seemingly become less “dog-friendly.” Maxwell Place is one of the locations in town that now has more signs prohibiting where our furry friends can run around.
At one point in time, the Maxwell Place park had these dog cutouts along the water, which I presume served as geese deterrents. Well with no real dogs, and not even dog cutouts anymore, some geese are calling MP their home. Even having “geese-lets”…
Well, the pathway along the park now is incredibly disgusting, with horrible goose droppings all over the place (which is probably worse that dog crap.) Who’s picking this up?
Let the dogs (and their responsible owners) on the grass, and this problem will go away!
PHOTO GALLERY (HOLD MOUSE OVER IMAGE TO NAVIGATE - 10 PHOTOS IN THIS SET)
(sorry to ruin anyone’s lunch with these awful photos)
Hoboken, pets, dogs, grass, Maxwell Place, Geese, Ducks, Geese Police
41. beamrider9 | June 26th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Wish this guy would go work his magic at Lincoln Harbor up in Weehawken. Running on the far end of their waterfront walkway has been like tiptoeing through a minefield for awhile now.
42. sunnybrook | June 26th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Why is it illegal to just shoot these geese…clearly there are way too many of them. Why the hell are they protected so much…just doesn’t make any sense.
43. escaped68 | June 26th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
The goose shit problem is wide spread all over the east coast. The geese police and others like them seem to be the only thing that pleases everyone. There was one community that used a recording of a goose in distress to shoo them away–it failed. IF you shoot them the shooter in for a ration of legal problems even if the shooter is authorized by authorities there is a mountain of paperwork for each shit factory So the dogs hired dogs stay, The tree huggers win
44. Friedupright | June 26th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Dogs to the rescue. I love it.
45. plaintruthiness | June 26th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
YuppieSteve wrote:
If it was left up to the city administration, you can bet the problem would be solved by astro-turfing or rubberizing the entire lawn area, thereby getting rid of the problem once and for all. And paid for by taxpayers via a no-bid contract.
46. Friedupright | June 26th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Shit, how much is that dog costing you Yuppie Steve? Are you really going to have to raise the common charges because of a Border Collie? If so, my dog will do it for free.
47. escaped68 | June 26th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
What some geese police do is they turn the dogs loose for everyday for a week or two. The following weeks they go 1 or 2 times aweek and the rest of the times they use a cut out of a dog on a pivot with a plastic bag on the tail to give the cut out a realistic use. There is golf course near my house and they use this method and I never see a shit factory there.
48. YuppieSteve | June 26th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Friedupright, I’d love it if your dog chased the geese away.
Leash laws have gotten out of control because people no longer know how to properly train their dogs to reliably behave off-leash. As a result, we’re all punished. Not even responsible dog owners may take their dogs off-leash.
Without dogs to harass them, geese roam free and poop with abandon.
So we pay for a company to chase off the geese… With a dog.
WTFITS?
As for the expense of it all… I know the dollars are small, but the principle is important. It is just not right to make some people pay for a municipal service while giving other taxpayers (and park users) a break.
What if Hoboken charged only Latin and European residents to fix the soccer field? What if the town only charged old folks for installing the “push here to cross street” buttons?
Bottom line: This is a public park for everyone’s use. The town should pay for the goose chasers from general tax revenues.
Or amend the leash laws. I’ll gladly take a minor risk of dog bite over a near guarantee of goose turds on my shoe.
49. FMTVENG | June 26th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
In some ways i agree with YuppieSteve, but on the other hand the company that developed the property brokered this deal with the city, and you as a buyer should have been aware of that while doing your due diligence before buying.
You choose to buy-in anyway, and now are paying for exactly what you signed up for…
50. YuppieSteve | June 27th, 2008 at 8:49 am
That’s a fair point, FMTVENG.
MP buyers knew there would be some park maintenance. But they didn’t expect “geese police”.
51. Journey | June 27th, 2008 at 9:46 am
YuppieSteve wrote:
So you bought a place by the water, did you expect geese? I would have geese and water go hand in hand. How did you imagine they would handle the geese?
52. matt_72 | June 27th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Journey wrote:
In their defense, I would imagine they thought the dogs belonging to the residents would chase the geese away. What nimrod thought banning dogs in a park that is sure to be a geese magnet was a good idea? That person needs their head examined.
53. FMTVENG | June 27th, 2008 at 11:06 am
matt_72 wrote:
then they should go back to their condo association and reverse the dog bag.
54. matt_72 | June 27th, 2008 at 11:12 am
FMTVENG wrote:
I believe the area where they need to reverse the dog ban on is the park - and I thought that was city property. Anyway, they need to reverse the dog ban. That is by far the easiest, cheapest AND most sanitary alternative. And I hope whomever advocated making this area a “dog free zone” lives in this area and has little kids that love the park. They really deserve to have their precious Johnny come home from the park with goose crap covered shoes that make nice disgusting footprints all over their white shag rugs…….ha ha.
55. plaintruthiness | June 27th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Why hasn’t the Geese Police been cited for breaking the muni code regarding keeping dogs on leashes? Did one dog owner get an exemption (and an out-of-towner at that)? Maybe all the dog owners should stage a protest and let all their dogs run on the lawn at the same time.
56. YuppieSteve | June 27th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Matt_72 and I agree on some things.
Dogs are the best solution here.
Imagine if the city outlawed lids on garbage pails, then made you pay for people running around with air fresheners and flyswatters.
That’s only slightly more ridiculous than the dog ban followed by the hiring of a dog handler to scare geese.
57. FMTVENG | June 27th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
plaintruthiness wrote:
that is a valid question. As far as I know the only exemptions written into the to laws are for law enforcement dogs or service animals for the disabled. I don’t see how this qualifies, and technically he’s in violation of the leash laws.
58. bornandrazedinhobo | June 28th, 2008 at 9:56 am
The enitire problem can be solved by hiring a few Mexicans for about $50 bucks a day and a lunch for two or three hours to hose down or pick up the crap and scare away the birds with a horn or hose. Eventually the birds will go elsewhere.
59. YuppieSteve | June 28th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
1. Maybe the police officially deputized the goose-chasing dog.
2. As practical as the “Mexican” suggestion may be, I think it’s a political non-starter. Besides, the goose would keep coming back. They’d just leave when the poop hosers returned.
60. 9 | June 28th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
LOL @ poop hosers!