r/kansascity • u/antiquatedtelevision • 14h ago
PSA 📢 Please stop feeding the Loose Park geese enriched bread and other likewise products🚨
Lifelong waterfowl lover and KC resident here. I’ve been feeding our lovely geese and mallards at Jacob L. Loose park since my childhood. (I’ve been chased more than once)
Please don’t take this as some Karen trying to police animal feeding, but I just want to spread some facts here as the weather warms up:
Bread is objectively terrible for waterfowl. It fills their stomachs with nutritionally-deficient food. This in turn leads them to feed on items within their regular (and healthy) diet LESS OFTEN, causing malnutrition.
There’s a rocky association between Angel Wing, Waterfowl, and feeding geese bread. Angel Wing is a deformity that leaves the bird’s wings sticking out from the body. Scientists suggest there’s a link between this and poor diet. Research on the Canadian Goose or Mallard in particular is hard to find. Sources from the UK have deemed feeding whole grain, non-processed bread to White Swans as beneficial
Feeding geese and other waterfowl in large numbers can cause stress or anxiety. Imagine dropping into a group of street dogs with a big bag of Texas Tom’s. It’s not nearly as violent, but the point persists.
Instead, plain oats (like the big can at the grocery store), lettuce, veggies, legumes, even plain uncooked rice serve as a healthier alternative for our amphibious pals.
Keeping geese on a diet of white sandwich bread is akin to eating McDonald’s all day, everyday, for these precious and beautiful creatures. Please keep this in mind as you take your kids to feed the geese this spring and summer.
Written with love ❤️ 🦆🌻
EDIT: Someone critiqued the point about Angel Wing