Oregon Public Broadcasting

About 50 demonstrators gathered in Bend's Drake Park Thursday night to protest the killing of 109 Canadian Geese.  The city's Parks and Recreation Department-- with help from the USDA-- euthanized the geese last week. That was after other efforts failed to control the population.

At last night's protest, Bend resident Debby Lynn read a poem she composed titled "A Letter to Goose 109." Debby Lynn: "We plunder what is not ours to take; the very lives of our fellow creatures.  I prefer poop on my shoes over blood on my hands.  The new Bend welcome sign could read "Welcome to Bend, where your goose is already cooked."

Reporter David Nogueras attended the protest.  He filed this report.

After the all the speeches, Bend resident Jane Underhill raised her hand from her perch on the grass.

Jane Underhill: "I have a question. Do you see people feeding the geese all the time, little children and families and things like that?"

I asked Jan Taylor a similar question last week. She's the community relations manager with Bend Park and Recreation District.

Jan Taylor: "They do feed the geese and that is a problem. It's not been against the law until recently and so we'll be putting signs up in the parks cause it is now against the law to feed the geese."

Violating this law carries a big fine -- $372 to be exact. But as of Thursday, none of those signs had been put up. I did find people feeding the geese.

Child: "Why is this Canada goose coming up to me."

Not far from where people were feeding geese, I found Pat Cohling and her husband.

Pat Cohling: "People need to recognize that feeding the geese isn't a good thing to do. You know, they obviously had enough to eat here and we need to make sure that that stops too.  Everybody likes to feed the geese and ducks but this is what happens."

Cohling says  she loves animals but supports the city in the goose kill for health reasons, She also points out the meat from euthanized geese was donated to local food banks.  

And while, Pat Cohling and Jane Underhill, the woman who asked the question at the protest have different feelings about what happened to the geese, both agree on one point.

By giving these geese a steady supply of food, it doesn't matter if you try to scare them off with bullhorns.  They'll be back.