Geese-Away hired to rid campus of geese
By Nicki Crisci
Opinion Editor
The distinct lack of geese droppings on Smith Mall is due in part to Geese-Away, a team hired March 3 by the Physical Plant to help rid the campus of an ever-increasing population of geese.
Geese-Away, operated by owner Leah DeBoy, consists of a team of three Border collies by the names of Benzie, Coyote Pete and Knuckles.
“We had a lot of complaints about the geese, the messes they make and the fact that they are intrusive for a lot of people,” said Mary Wade Atteberry, executive director of communications. “We’ve tried various methods, like chasing them off, but they’re pretty persistent.”
When DeBoy learned of the problem with the geese on the campus, she offered her services. Shortly after, the Physical Plant hired her for the three-month period the job entails.
DeBoy and her team of Border collies are on campus six days a week for around 45 minutes a day to chase the geese off.
“By coming at varying hours of the week, the geese are caught off guard and don’t get used to us,” DeBoy said. “Otherwise, they get into a pattern and get the idea programmed to not come when we are there.”
This month Geese-Away will arrive to campus at night because the geese will be nesting. This, according to DeBoy, allows the dogs to chase the geese away more effectively and gives her the opportunity to remove nests and eggs.
The process involved in training the collies to chase the geese, DeBoy said, is based on the idea of sheep herding. The collies learn herding skills over a two-year period, and then apply those skills to chasing the geese until they fly away.
The collies start at the retention pond near Cory Bretz Hall, and begin the removal by acting like a predator. The collies see the geese from a distance, stalk closer and then take off at a sprint to chase the geese until they are airborne. While the collies do not bark incessantly, some general barking is used to scare the geese off.
While the collies are running, DeBoy gives verbal commands, such as “come by”, “away” and “there”, which tells them to pursue, head to a certain area and stop. The collies follow her commands; and the geese are chased away, flying over the pond once to see, according to DeBoy, if they are still in danger.
“We are about 90 percent effective. There are always two geese that come back,” DeBoy said.
Geese-Away, according to Atteberry, allows the Physical Plant workers to pursue other jobs and frees them from cleaning up the geese droppings that littered Smith Mall.
“The geese live 25 years, excrete one-pound of droppings per goose per day and defecate once every six minutes,” DeBoy said.
After about a week or two, DeBoy said, the geese start coming less frequently, but the first year is always the hardest because some geese will return. For this reason, DeBoy will come back next year to check on the problem.
Atteberry said that responses to Geese-Away were mixed.
“When we announced Geese-Away, a lot of students e-mailed and said they were thrilled not to have to step around the messes,” she said. “Other students, however, complained, ‘Why are you hassling the geese?’ You’re not going to please everyone in this matter.”
With the motto “We goose your geese,” Geese-Away has been in business in the Indianapolis area for three years, working at apartment complexes, golf courses and cemeteries. According to DeBoy, UIndy is the first campus the business has taken.
Until the beginning of May, DeBoy, with Benzie, Coyote Pete and Knuckles in orange and green life jackets, will patrol the campus for the unwanted visitors.
“I don’t think any of us expect that the geese will never come back or we will never have geese on our campus,” Atteberry said. “But the idea is to keep that population controllable and not have them [on campus] in so many numbers.”
