SIU-Edwardsville calls off campus geese harvest

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville won’t be capturing and killing geese after all because of local opposition to the harvest.

The Belleville News-Democrat reports the school announced Wednesday it would cull the campus’ population of the geese. University officials cited more than a dozen documented cases since March of the birds acting aggressively.

The plan was to humanely process the dozens of harvested geese into food products for the needy.

But hours after the plan was announced, it was called off after students and professors decried it as unethical and unnecessary. They encouraged non-lethal methods of addressing the situation.

SIU spokesman Doug McIlhagga says the university has tried to control the goose population by shaking the eggs so they don’t hatch. But that hasn’t worked.