A plan to cull up to 1000 Canada geese in Christchurch this month has been called a "costly waste of ratepayers money" by the Animal Justice Party Aotearoa.
About $20,000 is spent a year on culling the geese as part of an operation organised by Christchurch City Council, Environment Canterbury and Christchurch Airport.
This month the cull was set to take place around the Avon Heathcote Estuary. The geese are rounded up over four or five hours and given lethal injections.
ECan previously told The Press between 700 and 1000 geese are culled each year.
The Animal Justice Party says the operation will involve herding the birds into a confined area and euthanising them.
"This mass slaughter is an ineffective, inhumane, and costly waste of ratepayers’ money,” said AJP general secretary Danette Wereta.
"It’s a short-term fix that fails to address the root causes of the issue and risks exacerbating the problem in the long term.
"These birds are highly intelligent and social.
"The idea that you can easily round them up and kill them while complying with the Animal Welfare Act’s stringent requirements for handling birds is unrealistic and cruel,” Wereta said.
"Christchurch has an opportunity to lead with compassion and responsibility, adopting a long-term strategy that reduces conflicts while respecting wildlife," Wereta said.
"By implementing a humane Canada goose management plan, the city can save money, improve outcomes, and promote coexistence with wildlife.
Canada geese are aggressive birds, which graze on pasture and contaminate recreational areas, waterways and crops.
While widely considered a nuisance, the birds are not recognised as pests under the Canterbury regional pest management plan.
In 2011, the Department of Conservation also removed them from Fish and Game NZ's management. Back then you needed a licence to kill one.
In June last year, black cut-out wolf decoys were used to scare Canada geese away from the display gardens and picnic areas at the Christchurch Botanic Gardens.
At the time, gardens director Wolfgang Bopp said the sheer number of birds was the problem.
"They're large birds and for any large animal, what goes in the front, comes out in the back and that's quite a lot," Bopp said.
Bopp heard about the decoys from the Clearwater Golf Club, which also used them to keep geese off the fairways.
The club started placing wooden cutouts of wild coyotes on the course in 2021 to scare off the geese and unwanted "foreign bogeys".
ECan deputy chair Deon Swiggs has previously spoken about the need to reclassify them as pests due to the damage the birds do to pasture and waterways.
”It’s only a small amount,” he said. “They are just taking over.”
