Geese pick on neighborhood children, pets
Four Toulouse geese are being held with the county's Animal Care and Control because a resident in the Deerwood subdivision said they were violent.
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Four geese were seized last week for "goosing" pets and children in an Evans subdivision, officials said.
Columbia County Animal Care and Control Manager Linda Fulmer said the four large gray Toulouse geese, which were loose on a community pond in the Deerwood subdivision, were seized March 24. A resident reported the geese because they were pecking, pinching and chasing her dog and grandchildren, Fulmer said.
"People want to go out there and feed the ducks and other things there, which is fine because they are not aggressive," Fulmer said. "But these geese are aggressive. I've been around several and they will hurt. They'll get you on the back of the leg and it will hurt."
The seized geese are being fostered at an Animal Care and Control employee's home because the county's Appling shelter cannot accommodate the mess and space requirements of the geese.
"Legally, we have to hold them for five days just in case an owner might show up," Fulmer said. "But with this kind of stuff, that just doesn't happen. We're going to find them a home. The main thing is to find them a place they can go where they won't be attacking people."
Fulmer said the best guess of how the geese got to the normally tranquil pond is that someone kept the baby geese in a back yard until they got too big and then released them.