Bury a goose?

[prudence]

There's a dead goose in my pasture under some trees. The pond next door attracts geese, and one must have either just died or something got it. Anyway, the other geese are all around and very vocal. I'm not sure if my usual methods of disposal of dead things - burial or double-bagged and into the garbage - are appropriate. Should I just leave it there? I want to do what is correct for the other geese...
Thx

[hosspuller]

Get a shovel. Dig a hole close to the dead goose. Deep enough so animals won't dig it up looking for a meal. Push it in, cover it. Don't leave it! It'll stink up your area.

[vacation1]

Also, use the shovel to defend self against the other geese:lol: Seriously, geese are sometimes a bit - assertive.

[prudence]

Thanks very much. I will go ahead and bury the poor thing and be prepared to chase off the two geese that appear to be grieving.

[cloudyandcallie]

Geese mate for life (altho there are a few divorces). Bury the poor thing. The grieving geese will mourn.
My family has always buried birds, squirrels and anything found dead on our property in the same graveyard as our dogs, cats, and horses I grew up with.

[MistyBlue]

Yup, bury it or throw it out. Either way it will be better for the other geese if you dispose of it somehow. If it had a mate the mate probably won't leave the area until it's gone. And it's not unknown for the mates of dead geese to just stay next to the corpse and slowly starve to death. They can grieve pretty hard. :no:

[CatOnLap]

well, we just pruned all our fruit trees, so we have a gorgeous burn pile about 10 feet high. Send old dead goosie over our way and we'll have a grand funeral pire...

[prudence]

Could be a little ripe on arrival. Thanks for the offer; I have a burn pile ready and could do that too except the other geese might throw themselves on it (?) Wish this task was done - the ground is hard and the goose is getting more dead by the hour.:(

[hosspuller]

well, we just pruned all our fruit trees, so we have a gorgeous burn pile about 10 feet high. Send old dead goosie over our way and we'll have a grand funeral pire...

I can't resist ... "Your goose is cooked ! " :eek:

[prudence]

Hosspuller: :lol::lol::lol:

The goose is in a large box in my trash can, which was the best I could do (ground was hard and I am an old lady). Two geese are still sitting about 100 ft from where the body was lying. Fingers crossed they recover and get on with their lives soon.

[BramblewoodAcres]

Wow, I feel a little bit heartless now! I would never dream of burying a wild animal that died on my property. When I come across them on the more inhabited parts of my farm they get chucked deep into the woods to feed the other wild critters out there.

[prudence]

Something I forgot to do until it was too late - call the west nile folks and report the dead bird! Actually if I had called within 24 hrs they would have picked it up for testing. My dead goose is a mark on a map showing where a bird died but not why. Calling would have also led to a simple solution for goose body disposal.

website if you are in California

http://www.westnile.ca.gov/

[BramblewoodAcres]

I guess they test differently for West Nile in Calif. than they do in the MidWest...here health departments will NOT pick up dead geese. There is a very specific list of what species they will accept:

From the Illinois Department of Health, Infectious Diseases division: Some acceptable species are crows, blue jays, grackles, starlings, robins, cardinals, sparrows, finches, hawks and owls. Birds that will not be accepted include pigeons, ducks, geese, chickens, other large birds and endangered species.