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Scarsdale Officials To Kill Pesky Geese, Turn Them Into Meat

SCARSDALE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Problems with Canada geese – from defecation to attacks – have led officials in Scarsdale to decide to kill the birds and turn them into meat.

As 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reported, at 9 a.m. Saturday, and there were no geese at Audrey Hochberg Pond Preserve – a spot that is apparently so known for geese that a tip on FourSquare advises visitors to "watch out for the goose s**t."

But there was a flock of geese about a block and a half away at a school.

Scarsdale Officials To Kill Pesky Geese, Turn Them Into Meat

Scarsdale school officials plan to kill the geese around Audrey Hochberg Pond, because of at least two complaints about droppings and at least two geese attacks.

Jerry Golden was walking with his grandson at the pond Saturday. While he said killing the geese may seem extreme, geese are a problem everywhere.

"Our golf course, every once in a while, is overloaded with geese, and you don't want to play and then walk around the droppings," Golden said.

But not everyone thinks killing the geese is such a good idea.

A spokeswoman for the group Friends of Animals said Scarsdale will be wasting tax dollars for a brutal process.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is the agency that will actually kill the geese, and then donate their meat to a local food bank.

This is not the first instance in which officials have decided to kill geese after they proved to be a nuisance in the New York Metro Area.

Last summer, federal officials rounded up about 700 geese from the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge and euthanized them, in the hopes of preventing airstrikes of passenger planes flying out of both John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports.

Geese were also killed for aviation safety reasons in 2011 and donated as meat to a Pennsylvania food bank – prompting protests from the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Do you think killing the geese is a good idea? Leave your comments below...

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