Denver is rounding up its Canada geese — to turn them into food for the needy

The city of Denver apparently has a new motto: Geese are not friends. They’re food.

Fed up with its growing goose problem, the city implemented a new initiative to round up its Canada geese and process them into food for “needy families,” Deputy Executive Director of Denver Parks and Recreation Scott Gilmore told CNN affiliate KDVR.

There are an estimated 5,000 geese living in the city. Denver has been trying to manage its geese population for more than 15 years. The city says the birds have led to “increased human-wildlife conflicts in parks, vegetation destruction, sanitation concerns, poor water quality, and other maintenance challenges.”

“We get so many complaints about people coming out here with a blanket to sit on the grass, and they cannot sit on the grass because there’s so much goose poop in the parks,” Gilmore said.

The program started earlier this month because the geese are currently at their most vulnerable: they molt around June and July and can’t fly.

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will conduct the roundups and help regulate whether geese meat is suitable for human consumption, Denver Parks and Recreation said. The agencies hope to donate the meat to “charitable organizations and wildlife rehabilitation facilities.”

Canada geese are protected under the Migratory Bird Act, but Denver Parks and Recreation obtained authorization from both the state and federal government to manage its goose population via roundups, according to its website.

Denver has already tried other geese management tactics included oiling their eggs, spraying repellants and creating visual barriers to discourage geese from nesting.