Residents at the Spring Lake Village retirement community in Southington say the number of geese flocking to their area is a recurring nuisance. Now, residents are voting on a proposal from the Spring Lake Valley Association to euthanize the geese.
“The geese have been here as long as I’ve been living here, about six years,” Joan Fisher said.
Fisher said she would like her retirement community to consider other options than killing the geese.
“I’m not comfortable being on TV,” she said, “but somebody has to advocate for these animals, they can’t advocate for themselves.”
The geese typically like to congregate by the lake.
“Actually, you can’t even walk out there anymore because of the geese droppings,” Robert Bluis said, “the whole place is completely covered; it’s like a useless area now.”
During spring when the problem gets out of control, residents say the geese will wander closer to their homes.
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“That was awful ‘cause they were here going in the garage, they were up on our back step, in the front door area, on the sidewalk, you couldn’t even walk,” Vivian Woodruff said.
Some residents said they reluctantly voted in favor of the plan to euthanize the geese.
“As far as avenues, how they could do it different, I really don’t know,” Woodruff said.
“I don’t know about killing them. I’m questionable about that part,” Bluis said, “but I’d definitely like to see them go away.”
Ultimately, the euthanization proposal would need approve from the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, but Fisher said she hopes it does not come to that.
“There’s a lot of things we can do besides euthanize the geese,” she said.
Spring Lake Village residents have until April 6 to cast their vote for or against the proposal.
NBC Connecticut’s calls to the association president and vice president were not returned as of Friday afternoon.
