Witnesses: Falls Dam geese cull 'appalling'

Canada geese lie on the shores of the Falls Dam last week after a cull by a helicopter shooter. Photo: Supplied

A group of people who witnessed a recent helicopter goose cull at Falls Dam, near St Bathans, say what they saw was distressing, but the company behind the cull says it is a standard part of pest management in the area.

Visiting artist and writer Gregory O'Brien and Jenny Bornholdt were part of a group who were at the dam recently when they saw a shooter from a helicopter cull about 100 Canada geese on the water over a period of about half an hour.

They said what they saw was "an appalling, very distressing and cruel thing to witness", "a bit like the film Apocalypse Now, but without the Wagner soundtrack".

They said the bodies of more than 100 geese were left in the water, a few of them mortally wounded but not yet dead, and shotgun shellcases were ejected into the lake.

Falls Dam Irrigation Company chairman Murray Heckler confirmed the cull was organised by the company, and done in conjunction with neighbouring landowners.

Mr Heckler said Otago Fish and Game used to co-ordinate, organise and contribute to the culls, but then "walked away, and left landowners [and] dam operators with the problem they had arguably created".

The geese were now culled "from time to time" because there were so many of them, Mr Heckler said.

"They badly foul the water, pasture and crops, not only in the area adjacent to the water body."

All the shot birds were collected and buried, he said.

Otago Fish and Game chief executive Ian Hadland confirmed Fish and Game no longer managed Canada geese as a gamebird.

"The Minister of Conservation changed their legal status under the Wildlife Act from a 'gamebird' to 'not protected' in 2011 after significant lobbying by Federated Farmers to have their protective status removed.

"This ended decades of hunter- funded management of the species through a South Island Management plan which had set limits on numbers.

"Since 2011 there has been an expansion of the range of [the] Canada Goose and in some places, increases in numbers. Nuisance populations of geese are now being culled by landowners, often by helicopter, at their own expense."

pam.jones@odt.co.nz