One dog singlehandedly has solved the
Canada geese problem at the College of Staten Island
His
name is Bud, and he's saved the College of Staten Island more than
$80,000.
You might say he has an instinct for his campus job. He romps on
each of the college's vast lawns and fields -- which, until he came
along, offered the ideal habitat to hordes of Canada geese.
Bud's
job description is simple: He is expected to claim every inch of
this 204-acre turf. This is not a problem. He is part border collie
and part black Labrador retriever, and he was made for this.
The story of Bud began last summer at the Willowbrook campus.
Vincent Bono, the chief superintendent of buildings and grounds,
faced what looked like an insurmountable problem: Thousands of
Canada geese had taken over the campus. The geese were nesting,
mating, eating -- and defecating -- everywhere.
The goose problem had gradually worsened over the years. But last
summer was the worst in memory, school officials said.
The geese bullied students and visitors on the sidewalks and lawns.
They mobbed the baseball and soccer fields. They grazed on the great
lawn, where graduation ceremonies are held. They congregated on the
grassy areas around the Campus Center, the library and the Center
for the Arts.
Worst of all, they collectively dropped an estimated one-and-a-half
to two tons of dung on the campus every day.
"A year ago you couldn't walk a straight line on this campus without
having to encounter bird doo," said Angelo J. Aponte, vice president
for finance and administration at the college. "It was fouling the
hallways and entryways. It was fouling up the mowers."
He pointed out his office window overlooking the -- now goose-free
-- great lawn.
"Picture geese dominating every green patch you see on campus," he
said.
Desperate for a solution, Bono considered using a chemical that was
meant to repel the geese. But it cost about $100 per acre. And it
had to be applied repeatedly -- at least eight times over the course
of the goose season. It would cost the College at least $80,000 to
treat its 114 acres of lawn and recreational fields.
Then Bono learned that dogs could be used to control Canada geese.
He found an animal rescue shelter in Kent County, Maryland, which
had the perfect candidate: Bud. Total cost: $25, all shots included.
He sent a staff member to pick up the dog, and gradually trained Bud
to respond to his commands. Then he set the dog loose on the
thousands of campus geese.
Today Bud sees few birds on his daily rounds, and must often chase a
ball instead of chasing geese. He spends his nights in a pen in the
Maintenance Building, and gets a lot of attention from the staff.
Not a single goose -- or goose dropping -- was visible on campus
last Thursday.
"This dog came to what I'm sure he felt was dog heaven," said
Aponte. "And he was so efficient that in a very short period of time
there were no more geese to chase."
