MIRAMAR, Fla. (AP) — Ten geese drowned in a South Florida lake after a homeowners association’s attempt to trap, sedate and euthanize them went horribly awry, resulting in it facing a likely fine.
The SilverLakes homeowners association in Miramar hired a company, Pest Wildlife Pro, to remove 25 geese because some residents in the suburban Fort Lauderdale neighborhood found them to be loud pooping machines, although others saw them as majestic, the South Florida SunSentinel reports.
Rolando Calzadilla, the company’s owner, said he fed the geese bread laced with sedatives Tuesday, but a loud car spooked the drugged birds and they flew off. Ten fell into the lake and drowned, while he found the other 15 and euthanized them offsite.
Calzadilla said residents who saw what was happening charged at him and were yelling and screaming. He said he had to call police for help, saying “the situation was out of control.”
“Everyone hates the dog catcher in the neighborhood. It was just a bad situation,” he told the newspaper.
Calzadilla said the residents who like the geese and name them are “never, never the same people” as the ones who get stuck with the noise and cleanup.
The homeowners association officers refused comment to the paper, but sent a notice to residents Wednesday saying the geese population had been “rapidly increasing” and had become aggressive.
The letter called the drownings an “unfortunate matter” and that Calzadilla was expected to follow all laws and ordinances, including local ones. The association had gotten complaints that the geese were eating flowers.
But Miramar government officials have put the blame on the homeowners association, sending the officers a letter Thursday that the association could be facing an unspecified fine. The city is a bird sanctuary and its code says it is illegal to hunt, wound, molest, injure or kill any bird within its limits. Calzadilla was not cited.
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