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What the flock? Mount Vernon park deploys cannon to ward off geese

Mount Vernon has used controlled hunts, lasers, and now a cannon to deter the geese that keep pooping at its park.

There's a geese problem across the country including right here in central Ohio.

Large Canada Geese, the kind that do not migrate, are leaving trails of poop everywhere.

"We hope to scare them away, I like geese I just want them in this park," Park Supervisor Dave Carpenter said. "You just have to keep harassing as much as you can.”

Powered by a propane tank the device sends two loud booms every five to 15 minutes.

Carpenter said on a summer day he's counted 250 geese using the ponds at Areal Park as their personal bird bath.

"When geese eat, geese poop, literally it's everywhere," he said.

He said the birds produce a pound and a half of excrement every day.

And this is a case of squatting no city ordinance could stop.

"Geese have instincts where they've been born they want to come back to and a lot of them have been born here and we're trying to break that cycle if you can," he said.

The cannon isn't the only tactic the city has used to rid the birds from the park. They've tried lasers and had a controlled hunt. They've killed 60 of them, yet they still come back.

Friday marks day two of the cannon versus geese standoff.

Carpenter said this gaggle of geese would probably move if people followed park rules.

"I would like people to stop feeding them," he said.

Meanwhile, the battle cry has sounded.

Will the cannon win? Or will the geese stand their ground?

"I think it's going to be somewhat effective but I don't think it's going to make them clear out of the park," said Carpenter.

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