Geese -3/13/2009
At the meeting last week the Board of Education decided to hire a firm which has been used by a number of school districts, towns, golf courses, etc. on Long Island to move the geese off their fields and grounds. Obviously this has been a serious problem for us for a long time. We had hoped that the Town of North Hempstead would create a coalition of school districts and the Town to address this problem collectively. Unfortunately, that has not happened. Consequently, the Board felt that they had to act in order not to let the problem go unaddressed for yet another spring.
The firm, Geese Off, will begin their efforts immediately. They use dogs that have been highly trained. All of the dogs are handled by trained experts. The firm is licensed and insured. The handlers and dogs will move around the District in vehicles with the firm’s name, Geese Off, on it in large letters. In addition, all handlers will be wearing a yellow vest with the name of the firm on it in letters anyone should be able to read even from a distance. The dogs are trained to move the geese off the fields in a humane manner. No geese will be physically harmed or killed.
In light of the fact that the local geese population has become fairly well established the firm expects that the dogs will need to move the geese off our grounds several times a day initially. The visits will happen at random times from dawn into the evening in order not to be predictable. They will last probably no more than 1-3 minutes.
We would ask everyone that the handlers and the dogs be left to do the work on their own. They will probably not seek any interaction with you, with students or with anyone else who might be on our grounds at any time nor should you seek interaction with them.
Should anyone volunteer to assist in this effort using their own dog, we urge them not to become involved. The offer is a nice one but no one other than dogs used by this firm are appropriately trained nor are they appropriately insured for liability in case something were to happen.
