Residents at upmarket east golf estate against culling of geese

The planned culling of Woodhill Residential Egyptian geese had residents up in arms this week after the golf estate informed them of its plans to bring the numbers of the population under control.

A group of residents opposed to the planned culling, under the leadership of Arnold Steynberg, created a Facebook group “Protect the Geese of Woodhill”.

The group aims to “protect the geese that call Woodhill their home”.

By the time of going to press, the group had 840 likes.

According to Steynberg, an agreement with the management of Woodhill was reached to stop the culling process “for now”.

“The issue of the culling of the birds will be addressed at the next annual general meeting. Then we can see how we can handle the situation by not necessarily getting rid of the geese, but rather releasing them into a nature reserve.

“We will look at all available options and alternative explorations to see how we can protect the environment,” he said.

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Woodhill CEO, Alan Hargroves, however said it was and never will be Woodhill’s intention to remove all of the geese.

“The culling of the geese in a controlled manner has been done before as over population of the species has a massive ecological impact on the environment, with the geese chasing other bird species from the areas (like the Red Knobbed Coot, Marsh Hens, and the rare African Swamphen),” he said.

The estate has applied for an official permit from the department of environmental affairs in the past to control the number of the birds, but the permit has expired and the process to renew the license has been delayed due to Covid-19.

“The estate make use of a professional hunter to handle the culling process by using a two two silencer gun. In the past, 15 geese a week were culled. The issuing of the permit renewal is the main reason why there is an over-population,” said Hargroves.

He wants to assure residents that breeding pairs and goslings care not targeted.

“The geese’s excrement can cause higher chances of the development of blue algae cyanobacteria (blue-green algae)and bacteria in the dams which could cause fish species to die,” he said

Meanwhile, a complaint was lodged with the national council of SPCAs, which confirmed the complaint.

“This complaint was received by the NSPCA yesterday (Tuesday) and forwarded to the Tshwane SPCA for investigation given that this falls within their jurisdiction.

“The society is still within their reporting window and we are awaiting their feedback,” said public relations officer Keshvi Nair.

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Residents and other concerned people also took to social media to voice their discontent.

Hargroves said that an open discussion and dialogue were needed between them and the residents to raise and address concerns.

“It is an emotional subject and we acknowledge that.

“Woodhill remains committed to finding a less aggressive approach to controlling the over population of Egyptian Geese.”

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