There is a foul problem at Centennial Park in Dollard-des-Ormeaux. People are complaining that while they enjoy the park, they have to be careful where they step because there are goose droppings all over.
“It’s all over the paths. It’s everywhere,” said park user Julia Stein.
“Especially around the water, you go and see the stuff,” said DDO resident Zafar Inayad.
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Park attendant Michael Kack explained that the geese return every year.
“We’ve had complaints about it before. They’re never over at the island there. There’s not really a natural predator so they just run rampant,” Kack told Global News.
He and his colleagues clean up after the geese every day.
“If we didn’t pass by with the 4-wheelers with the screen on the back of it, you wouldn’t be able to walk in the park,” he said.
The geese wander around gorging themselves on grass. In their wake, they leave droppings all over.
“We find our way around,” Stein said.
“I step around them,” said park user Don Bader. “At my age, it’s hard to jump.”
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There were about 20 geese in the park Friday morning, but Kack said there are sometimes 50 or more.
“Their routine is to come up this way pretty much every morning and leave presents along the way,” he explained.
In spite of the nuisance, nobody we spoke to seems to want the geese kicked out.
“What are people expecting the geese to wear poopy bags on the back of their butt?” wondered Centennial Park regular Nattashalina Bouwman. “I mean they’re just birds, beautiful little birds.”
“I don’t really mind it that much to chase them away,” said Stein.
DDO communications director Natalia Correa told Global News the city has put up fences to keep the geese from going to the surrounding area to do their business. She reminded people not to feed the geese, but said the city wants to keep the park “natural.”
It seems that for now the geese and their droppings are here to stay.
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