Huntsmen attack geese in Fürth Stadtpark

September 2004:

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November 2004:

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Last Saturday, at about 8 a.m., people in the Fürth Stadtpark were surprised to see men with guns taking pot shots at some of the grey geese. Apparently some think there are too many of them. The Fürther Nachrichten reports in today’s edition, which is unlikely to be online for long. One of the men was Georg Höfler, the Jagdpächter (Collins says game tenant) responsible. There seem to be doubts as to whether anyone is allowed to shoot anything in the park, whether he should not have had a permit from some authority other than the parks office, and whether grey geese may be killed at all. However, he did take care not to kill any humans, by shooting from the park into the river (actually, he is allowed to do more on the other side from the park, and he is allowed to kill rabbits, hares, pheasants and wild duck – wild duck is rather too broad a term, because some of the ducks are rare ones).

bq. „In den vergangenen zehn Jahren haben sich immer mehr Gänse im Stadtpark niedergelassen“, klagt Sylvia Jahn vom Grünflächenamt. Für die Jagd auf die Vögel gebe es zwei gravierende Gründe: Immer mehr Graugänse würden die Liegewiesen verschmutzen. „Da kann man sich oft kaum hinlegen, weil überall Kot herumliegt“, sagt Jahn. Zudem würden die Tiere beide Stadtweiher „überdüngen“. Die Bakterien, die die Gänse ausscheiden, entziehen den stehenden Gewässern zu viel Sauerstoff. „Die Weiher kippen irgendwann um und die Fische sterben“, sagt sie.

(Some people don’t like sunbathing on grass if forty geese have been defecating on it. But they are more ornamental than the sunbathers IMO).

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