Jul 12, 2024 - History

From geese police to lawsuits: Richmond's wild goose story

For two glorious years, Richmond's goose police ran on all fours at a speed of up to 30 miles per hour.

Why it matters: The goose busters were on standby to scare the hell out of Byrd Park's out-of-control Canada geese population.

Chasing them away was part of the city's goose management program in 2008 — because no one herds animals better than a border collie.

Zoom in: City parks spokesperson Tamara Jenkins told Axios that the border collie program ended around 2010.

But the Byrd Park geese were at the center of a scandal in 2020, when the city planned to remove them because people kept feeding them too much bread.
And did a resident-led group (the Friends of Swan Lake Domestic Geese) sue to stop them? Yes. Yes, they did.

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