Outcry after geese shot by golf club

A Worcestershire golf club has faced an angry backlash from its local community after it shot several geese because their faeces may have dirtied golf balls.

One local resident said she even found a shotgun lying in the grass on the course.

Worcester News has reported that the bodies of at least seven Canada Geese were found floating in a lake ‘just yards’ from the homes of people living next to Bank House Hotel and Golf Club.

A spokesman for the club told the paper that it was “grim” for golfers if they have to clean the balls and that the incident was not “particularly of note”.

The club was given permission to shoot the birds, which were designated as ‘vermin’.

“We have been given permission and it takes place here quite regularly. It’s how we control the Canada Geese here,” said the spokesman.

“The way to control them is to shoot them. It’s the mess from their faeces that is pretty grim. It’s unhygienic.

“We would literally end up with hundreds of the things here if we didn’t control their numbers.

“It’s nothing particularly of note for us.”

However, the story has led to an angry backlash from the local community.

Lyn Kirby, 69, who lives yards from the course, said: “I felt sickened. The geese have been there since we have been here in 1980 – it’s one of their natural feeding grounds.”

She added that she found a double-barrelled shotgun with a night sight on the course a few weeks ago, which she handed in to the golf club. The club has said it is investigating this claim.

Dozens of residents also expressed their anger on the newspaper’s website.

“It takes a special kind of low life to judge geese droppings as unhygienic yet think it is acceptable to leave rotting carcasses floating in the lake,” said one.

“Yet another example of human kind killing animals for merely getting in the way,” added another. “This snobbery and way of thinking really needs to be addressed otherwise our beautiful wildlife will be gone forever.”

However, some posters did defend the golf club. “Without the golf course the hotel will close down, putting about a hundred members of staff out of a job,” said one. “The number of geese on the course was making three of the holes nearly unplayable.”