Council apologises for poisoning geese and ducks at Tasmanian park

Birds killed following complaints about droppings and damage to playing field

Geese swimming in a lake in Tasmania, Australia (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A council has apologised after fourteen geese and two ducks were poisoned following complaints about excessive droppings at a park.

Derwent Valley in Tasmania insisted it was not aware of the decision by one of its officers to “humanely destroy” the birds using chemical bait.

Bosses launched an investigation and promised angry residents they were treating the incident “very seriously”.

The council said in a statement that the original plan was to safely relocate the birds to a different area of Tynwald Park.

“A number of complaints from the community about excessive bird droppings together with ongoing damage to the playing field over the last couple of months led to council officers discussing how to remedy the situation,” it said

“One idea canvassed was to have a number of geese safely relocated to another part of the valley.

“After consulting with a veterinarian about sedative options, a council officer subsequently determined that the idea was not viable, determining to engage a pest management company to have the target geese humanely destroyed.”

Local residents expressed their anger and shock at the deaths in comments on the council’s Facebook page.

“My daughter and I were admiring them yesterday after noon while on our walk all were perfectly healthy then, so sad and disgusted to hear about this,” wrote Hayley Triffitt.

Tegan Cresswell said: “This is absolutely disgusting and upsetting. I have been taking my children to feed the ducks and admire the geese for 6 years now.”

The council said that neither its elected members nor its management were involved in the decision.

“We are extremely concerned at how this occurred and are taking it very seriously,” a spokesperson said.

“The General Manager is demanding an explanation and conducting a review into the decisions that led to this outcome.

“We apologise for any distress this may have caused.”