Goose Busters—and Their Collies—Back at Prospect Park

The Goose Busters are back at Prospect Park.

Last summer, the Prospect Park Alliance set out to by scaring the birds off with trained Border Collies and coating their eggs with oil (a process called “addling”). The efforts were in response to the USDA’s 2009 controversial gassing of almost 400 geese in the park.

Anne-Katrin Titze, a local wildlife rehabilitator, spotted the Goose Busters’ van in the park recently, as well as Cleo, one of the companies trained Border Collies, and her handler Mike Mallon. 

“The hiring of border collies in January is ,” said Titze in an email. “The migratory Canada Geese that are at the lake will be gone of their own free will in April, as they were last year, when only 25 - 30 remained.”

Goose Busters is based out of Virginia, and last year the New York Times reported that they worked out of Prospect Park for about eight weeks, at a charge of $725 a week.

Prospect Park Alliance posted an update to their website last week, detailing their Canada Goose Management Plan.

“The border collies will be patrolling the area around the Lake during January, before the breeding season begins, to help manage the goose population in the Park,” the statement read.

According to the update, the Park’s goal is to “discourage non-migratory Canada geese from making a permanent home in Prospect Park, where, in the absence of natural predators, they will quickly multiply and possibly upset the delicate ecosystem of the Lake and its surroundings.”

"We hired Goose Busters last year and it was successful,” said Paul Nelson, Prospect Park Alliance’s spokesman. “We were also praised last year by the Humane Society of the United States and NYC Audubon for our actions."