The city of Denver has come up with a controversial way to deal with its growing geese population: Wildlife officials are planning to capture and kill thousands of Canada geese and donate the meat to charitable organizations.

"For more than 15 years, Denver Parks and Recreation (DPR) has implemented various goose management tactics to keep resident populations in parks at appropriate levels," officials said in a news release. "However, resident populations continue to grow, resulting in an unnatural number of geese for which Denver parks provide habitat."

The city estimates about 5,000 geese live in Denver and as many as 2,200 will be culled through the program, according to The Denver Post. A single Canada gosling can produce 1 pound of poop each day, the Post reports.

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"We get so many complaints about people coming out here with a blanket to sit on the grass, and they cannot sit on the grass because there's so much goose poop in the parks," Scott Gilmore, deputy executive director of Denver Parks and Recreation, told KDVR-TV. "And they are getting processed, and they're getting donated to needy families."

Parks and Recreation officials say they've tried to manage the goose population by oiling the eggs, using eco-friendly wildlife repellents and creating natural barriers to discourage geese from nesting. They've even employed a remote-controlled machine called the Goosinator designed to chase the birds away.

Although fewer eggs have hatched in recent years, the population had gradually increased each migration season. The birds have destroyed vegetation, caused sanitation issues and sparked "human-wildlife conflict" in the city's parks.

Some residents are critical of the decision to kill the birds.

“I think supporting underprivileged people is noble, but killing wild geese to feed those, sounds ridiculous,” Howard Turk, who lives near one of the city's parks, told KCNC-TV. “This is a park, people want to be in nature and play, why kill them?”

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Canada geese are protected under the Migratory Bird Act, but the city has received permission to conduct the roundups from state and federal authorities. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will assist the city in determining whether the meat is safe for human consumption and developing a long-term geese management strategy.

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