Cardboard cutout dogs used in attempt to scare off geese

Park officials in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, have recently planted cardboard cutouts of dogs in an attempt to fend off flocks of geese that are making a mess in popular regions of the park.



The geese congregate "in front of the band shell where we have concerts and get in the grass,” Tom Schrader, director of Parks and Recreation at Pfiffiner Park, said. “People want to put their blankets down on the ground but can’t.” There are anywhere from 25 to 120 geese in front of the band shell at once and they usually relieve themselves every 20 minutes, Schrader said.



In an attempt to move the geese into the lake, park officials placed three cardboard dog cutouts at $40 each around the band shell. “The geese generally stay about 30 to 40 yards away from the cutouts because they resemble coyotes,” he said. This is one of many efforts the park has used in the past two years to deflect the wild animals,


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Other attemps have included mounting handcrafted owls in trees, purchasing plastic clappers and employing volunteers to shoo them into the nearby lake. “This year we didn’t have as many people so we tried different alternatives and Googled ways to scare geese,” he said. Two of the three cutouts have since been stolen. The park plans to make their own to replace them.