Thank you for using a photo of Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary on the December cover and including the sanctuary in your story on urban geese . I saw the cover, I knew it was a photo of one of our ponds. One of our programs that coincides with your story is our yearly goose banding program. It began in 1965, making it one of the lengthiest geese tracking programs in the country. It provides valuable knowledge regarding the health and overall condition of the geese, allows a long-term population study and tracks their migratory patterns.
All cities have laws against raising livestock within the city limits.
Protecting geese has given them free-ranging livestock status. The birds live clean and can avoid their own contamination under normal conditions. Humans and other creatures might pick up diseases from their wastes. Minnesota has gathered excess urban geese and processed them for food shelters. This meat is as pure or more so than any standard processed domestic animal.