Militant approach needed to control Canada goose population in border city, says expert
Managing Windsor's population of Canada geese will require militant effort over multiple years to truly make a dent in the number of the birds throughout the city.
That's according to Dan Frankian of Hawkeye Bird and Animal Control Specialists — a bird control expert with more than 36 years of experience managing animal populations.
"They're coming after you and you're going after them, and we know how militant they can be," Frankian told CBC.
The former Canadian Armed Forces sniper and master falconer has traveled all over the world to help large corporations and government agencies get bird populations under control.
Frankian said dealing with Canada geese needs special diligence.
"I mean, they call them the Canadian Air Force not for unknown reasons. These things are good, all right," Frankian advised.
The City of Windsor has hired a contractor to remove 150 eggs from seven nesting locations in Windsor. It's a method that requires a permit from the federal government.
Council approved a $30,000 geese management strategy as part of the city's annual operating budget earlier this year.
Management plan a good start, says federal government
Riverside-area councillor Jo-Anne Gignac pushed for action on the issue after she heard last summer from a constituent complaining about nearly colliding with geese while riding a bike on Ganatchio Trail.
"He swerved to avoid them. He was thrown from his bike and spent four days in the hospital with a broken collar bone and six broken ribs," Gignac told council in June 2024.
Geese crossing busy roads have led to other collisions in the city, in some cases sending people to hospital with serious injuries.
"These flocks of geese just walking out into the road, people slamming on their brakes, and it's a mess," Gignac told council.
But a spokesperson for the federal government said Windsor's management plan is a good starting point that's in line with what similar sized cities across Ontario have been doing.
"However, habitat modification and education remain vital to mitigating human-goose conflicts in Windsor," wrote Samuel Lafontaine, a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada.
The federal agency 430 permits regarding Canada geese have been issued across Canada since 2020, and 97 per cent of them include egg management methods.
'Do not let the population grow'
The Canadian Wildlife Service says Canada geese lay two to eight eggs a year, starting when the adults are around three years old.
The large birds nest in the spring in familiar areas for their entire lives — which can be as long as 25 years.
That means one Canada goose could produce 176 eggs in its lifetime.
According to the Canadian Wildlife Service, late April to early June is when geese are most aggressive — because they're motivated to protect their recently hatched goslings.
Frankian said oils can be applied to eggs to prevent them from hatching — but that won't dissuade a Canada goose from nesting at a location again.
He said the city's contractor should act like a predator to the full extent that the federal permit allows.
"Destroy the nest, destroy the eggs, do it in front of the female," advised Frankian, who emphasized that the act needs to show the goose that all humans are a threat.
"The basic thing is: Do not let the population grow."
According to the City of Windsor, its federal permit only authorizes "the removal of nests and eggs during a defined period."
But Frankian believes outright, obvious destruction of the nest and eggs is necessary for the plan to be truly effective. Otherwise, the goose will persist in nesting again.
"You are trying to tell the goose, get out, don't come back," Frankian said.
Windsor resorts to removing geese eggs for population control
3 hours ago
Duration 2:40
The City of Windsor has obtained a federal permit to remove 150 Canada goose eggs — part of an effort to control the local population of the large and persistent bird. But anti-goose expert Dan Frankian says the city will need to be militant about the plan. CBC's Chris Ensing reports.
University sports fields protected by dogs
This isn't the first time Windsor has tried to get geese out of popular park areas such as the riverfront trail.
In 2019, city staff placed two-dimensional dog-shaped cutouts on the riverfront to try to scare away geese.
The University of Windsor tried the same, then had a better idea: Employ an actual dog to chase the geese off campus sport areas.
Winston, a St. Bernard-Mastiff mix, is owned by Rick Daly — manager of athletic facilities and services at the university.
Twice daily, Winston runs through the track and football fields of the Toldo Lancer Centre, making life difficult for geese.
"Ultimately it's just to annoy them so that they're not nasty," Daly explained.
Daly consulted with golf course operators to find the right approach to preventing the accumulation of "geese content" — the term Daly uses for goose droppings.
Daly also encourages fellow dog-owning staff members to bring their pets to campus and help out. "We simply just want to gently remove the geese from locating here."
"The dogs won't necessarily catch them. They won't be able to."
Daly said Winston gets paid for his work with treats and hugs.
Mutli-year effort needed, says expert
Frankian said that a dog can work to deter geese from frequenting a park — but it needs to be consistent.
Chasing geese with dogs is the only method that doesn't require a federal permit, Frankian added.
The stronger method would be to obtain a permit that allows for physical relocation of geese to other communities.
"Geese molt," said Frankian. "In other words, these flight feathers entirely disappear. They fall off every year. They're flightless."
That time of year is when experienced bird control professionals will slowly corral the geese into manageable groups that can be put into trucks and moved elsewhere.
According to Frankian, the key is to outlast the geese with your efforts: You don't stop until the geese give up — which will take more than a few years.
"When they give up, you do an extra year, and then you're done," Frankian said.
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'I can't talk to a politician without them giving me a story about what has happened, and often women, especially racialized, Indigenous members of the LGBTQ2+ community. 'You just don't know … probably 99 per cent of (threats) are nothing. It just only takes one person … I don't think you can fool around with this.' The P.E.I. pie incident happened on Aug. 16, 2000, while Chrétien was visiting an agricultural exhibition in Charlottetown. As the prime minister entered the building and began shaking hands with people, a man in the crowd went up to him and pushed what appeared to be a cream-topped pie into his face. As a shocked-looking Chrétien peeled off the pie plate and wiped his face, the man — who had attempted to flee — was stopped by police. While the RCMP acknowledged that the incident shouldn't have happened, it wasn't the first such security breach during Chrétien's time as prime minister. 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'My role is to make sure that our members and our principals are equipped with not only the physical tools to stop that, but also the mental acuity to be able to say something is not right,' Paradis said, adding that Mounties were quick to bring down someone who got too close to Trudeau at a parade in Montreal in 2019. Paradis said the threat landscape has calmed down somewhat since the recent change of government. If an official is threatened online, she said, Mounties will pay the person levying the threat a visit to determine whether they have the capacity to act on it, or if there is a mental health issue at play. Paradis said the RCMP works with government officials, the House of Commons, constituency offices and security officers for various ministers to complete risk assessments. 'I think we've got a better sense of the picture of what's going on,' Paradis said. There have been several recent efforts to boost security measures for elected officials. In 2024, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme asked the government to consider drafting a new law that would make it easier for police to pursue charges against people who threaten elected officials. Around the same time, former public safety minister Marco Mendicino called for the creation of 'protective zones' around political constituency offices to shield members of Parliament and their staff. McKenna said she'd like to see an independent protective service created specifically to protect the prime minister and other federal officials. She said she'd like to see the government pass online harms legislation and hold social media companies accountable for the threats posted on their platforms. McKenna said politicians also need to stop launching personal attacks on each other in order to generate social media clips. 'The problem is when they get personal, then it's easy for people to basically dehumanize people,' she said. 'It means that it's OK to say terrible things about people and ... it's OK to go up to them and shout at them in the street and threaten them.' When asked if more security measures are needed, Paradis said she and most police officers 'work within what we have now' and adapt when things change. Rob Huebert, a professor in the department of political science at the University of Calgary and director of the Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies, said the 'near assassination' of U.S. President Donald Trump last year demonstrates that, even today, a determined assassin can still get close to a politician. 'On so many of these events, you can try to have metal detectors, you can try to have pre-screening, but it's impossible to ever try to achieve 100 per cent security … the threat of an assault on a political leader is one of those constants,' he said. 'The threat is always there.' Huebert cited the example of the so-called 'Toronto 18' terrorism plot, exposed in 2006, which was to involve a series of public attacks to convince the federal government to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. He said the fact that there have been no successful attacks on Canadian government officials could be the result of improved security — or it could be because no one else has tried. Chris Mathers, a retired RCMP officer and president of a consulting and investigative firm, said the 2000 pie incident shows how Chrétien 'didn't stay in the box' — meaning he often strayed from the protective perimeter provided by his security detail. Trudeau, he said, 'always stayed in the box,' perhaps because, as the son of a prime minister, he grew up aware of threats against politicians. 'If you stay in the box, there's a lot less chance that you're going to be confronted by somebody with a pie or a knife or a gun or a bomb,' Mathers said. Mathers said 'the world is changing' and that people are now 'a lot more aggressive and will do and say things that they wouldn't in the past.' 'The problem is that we've started to degrade into a very permissive society and inappropriate behaviours are almost considered to be courageous in some areas,' he said. 'So yes, security around public figures has increased, just as a result of the changing social environment.' With files from Jim Bronskill This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 15, 2025. Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press
