Overview
- The club confirmed that on 16 July it hired qualified contractors who humanely dispatched eight Canada geese and goslings after neighbours reported gunshots early that morning.
- The club says the decision followed many months of enhanced cleaning and non-lethal deterrents, that Surrey Police were notified in advance, and that the marksman held a Natural England licence for public-health culls.
- Members and local residents say they were not consulted, were initially told the birds had been rehomed, and reported anger and distress after learning the animals had been shot and seeing surviving birds roaming injured.
- St George’s Hill says it is revising its approach to prioritise habitat management and humane deterrence, and the club has not reported any prosecutions or regulatory penalties so far.
- The case highlights a wider problem in the UK where growing Canada goose numbers create heavy fouling and health risks from bacteria in droppings, shelters often will not accept healthy wild birds, and landowners face hard choices about control methods.