Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
GEESE
GEESE. In July 1878, geese were "becoming an unbearable nuisance." Residents of the levee proposed to "murder several flocks" in the area unless their owners took care of them. (1)
Large gatherings of geese cOULD be more than a nuisance. In 2003 a study "Zoonotic Diseases: The Health Aspects of Canada Geese" conducted by physicians and researchers from Illinois, Wisconsin and Tennessee found that a goose can produce one dropping per minute while eating which can result in more than two pounds of fecal matter per goose per day. While direct transmission from the birds to humans had not been found, a number of disease organisms had been found in goose droppings including salmonella and E. coli. (2)
In 2010 Paul "Gooseman" Messerschmidt paraded his flock of geese around the grounds of the DUBUQUE COUNTY FAIR. Dressed in themed clothing, the tamed birds resulted in Messerschmidt loosing 220 pounds over many months and improving his health. (3)
An annual event for people driving along Pennsylvania Avenue near Hempstead for many years was the parade of geese and their young. Leaving their sanctuary around the pond at PENN PLACE apartments, the geese temporally block traffic both ways as they walked to the other side of the road for food.
See: HOG POUND
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Source:
1. "Caught on the Fly," Dubuque Herald, July 24, 1878 p. 4
2. "Geese Taking Over Neighborhoods," Telegraph Herald, February 2, 2003, p. 7
3. " 'Gooseman' Parades His Children," Telegraph Herald, August 1, 2010, p. 12