CALABASAS : Residents Donate Money for Geese Pen

The Calabasas Park Homeowners Assn., hoping to resolve the problem of a population explosion of geese at Lake Calabasas, will donate $3,000 to purchase a special pen to hold the birds until homes can be found for them.

The association’s board of directors approved the expenditure at a recent meeting, said Don Diamond, chairman of the Calabasas Lake Committee.

Residents around the lake have been complaining that the geese population has grown over the years to the point where they are now a health hazard. Geese droppings are polluting the lake, and some residents say that geese have attacked people, although no injuries have been reported.

Part of the problem, said Bruce Richards, director of the Agoura Animal Shelter, is that people who take in baby geese as pets let them loose at the lake when they mature.

The pen will house about 15 geese, said Calabasas Mayor Karyn Foley.

“I’m happy about this,” she said. “Now, I’m just hoping we can get homes for them.”

Foley said she knows three people who have shown interest in adopting geese.

Diamond said that the pen, which was recommended by a waterfowl biologist for the Los Angeles Zoo, would be kept at the Agoura Animal Shelter.

Richards said the shelter initially took in four of the birds and found homes for them. But, in general, he said, there is little demand for geese as pets.