Kansas City, Mo. — A Kansas City woman is organizing a force of "goose busters" who will try to humanely rid suburban lakes of the pesky birds.
Marianne Lumpe, a self-proclaimed "Goose Lady," spent $3,000 on a border collie to chase the geese from her Mission Lake neighborhood in south Kansas City.
But she says it will take a communitywide effort to keep the birds from hopping from lake to lake.
Once nearly extinct, Canada geese have become such a nuisance in several Missouri cities that more than 200 were rounded up in June and shipped to Minnesota for slaughter.
Lumpe has enlisted the assistance of GeesePeace, a national nonprofit group dedicated to finding humane ways to resolve geese conflicts.
About 50 people from Johnson County in Kansas and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri attended one of two meetings Wednesday to learn how to get rid of the geese and their droppings.
Lumpe said she hoped the meetings would generate 200 or 300 volunteers to become part of the goose patrol.
GeesePeace will train volunteers in March how to keep eggs from hatching. A coating of corn oil on an egg prevents the embryo from developing. A permit from the Department of Conservation is required to addle the eggs.
David Feld, president of GeesePeace, told the group it would take cooperation to get rid of the birds.
"Where do you think those geese go? To your neighbor," Feld said.
He said the geese would be forced to seek remote areas if all the groups work together.
Feld said border collies also were needed to chase away adult geese.
Lumpe has started a company, Peaceful Kingdom, that uses Boo, her border collie, to help communities banish the geese.
Connie Stephens attended the meeting to find ways to convince her neighbors at Raintree Lake in Jackson County to work with two other lake communities.
"We all need to get involved for this to be effective," she said.
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