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Friesland to 'get rid' of 10,000 Greylag geese

Wednesday 17 February 2010

Friesland provincial council has given the green light to the cull some 10,000 Greylag geese which, it says, are causing serious damage to crops.

'If we don't intervene now, the nuisance and the damage will be too great and we will have to take even more rigorous steps in the future,' council official Hans Konst told the Telegraaf.

Some 17,000 geese are thought to summer in Friesland but officials want to reduce that to 7,000, in line with 2006 numbers.

As well as killing the birds, officials plan to plant less protein-filled grasses in popular breeding areas.

The Netherlands has struggled with its Greylag goose population for the past few years. In 2008, judges in Haarlem withdrew a permit for the cull of 12,000 geese in Noord Holland province.

That same year, officials on the Wadden Sea island of Texel announced plans to kill 6,000 geese to reduce the breeding population to 200.

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Readers' comments

I'm just wondering about the side-effects.

So lets hope the 200 left are not all related.
How can one quickly and cheaply find out before culling them?

What will less 'protein-filled grasses' do for other wildlife in the area?

By Gerard | February 17, 2010 9:42 AM

ofcourse when the big celebration and festival season is over, the price of goose in the market hits the bottom. So shall the Haitians get them frozen or it's local people who're going to cook some 50 tons of bird meat?
And please dont start the whole vegetarian, save-the-bird propoganda.

By Jon | February 17, 2010 1:06 PM

Great pity that they did not do this before Chistmas.Goose Yum Yum.

By James Tait | February 19, 2010 11:04 AM

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