The current campus population of geese must be removed as quickly as possible as their presence on the Hengelosestraat is a danger to road safety. They will be replaced with geese from another area. The municipality of Enschede and Geese Protection have agreed this. The UT had also agreed this with both parties, but then yesterday Geese Protection wanted to come and take away the birds and the university slammed on the brakes.
Approximately thirty geese live on campus and, according to the municipality of Enschede, create dangerous traffic situations around the Hengelosestraat. The animals used to graze on the viaduct slope, but now it is gone the geese regularly walk onto the busy road. One solution may be to remove the current goose population and introduce new birds from another area in their place. "You do not fence than to convert. That remain in the vicinity of the pond where they turn off " says Trizin Hof of Hofganzen Geese Protection Netherlands.
Hof says that he, UT and the municipality of Enschede agreed a few weeks ago that the thirty campus geese would move to Akka's Geese Paradise in exchange for fifteen new geese from that collection. Ray Klumpert from facilities management at UT recognises that the geese regularly enter the Hengelosestraat and confirms that the UT talked about this with the municipality. According to Klumpert, UT has not yet approved the proposed solutions.
This week the municipality moved into geese overdrive. Hof: 'An official said the situation with the geese was out of hand and the animals constitute a politically charged issue. ‘Can you remove them as soon as possible?’ he asked. We wanted to do yesterday, but the UT suddenly said: we don’t want that. "
Ray Klumpert: "That's right. We find it too blunt a tool to immediately remove the geese. That’s why we said that the municipality must contact the Executive Board before anything happens with the birds. " According to Klumpert, geese are part of the image of the campus and, although they are not owned by the UT, the university doesn’t want to just lose them. UT has always cared for the geese.
According to him UT are hesitant because there is no guarantee that a new geese population would stay away from the Hengelosestraat. Moreover, according to Klumpert it is unclear how large a problem the congestion is. "The geese are sometimes on the road, but remember that it is a 50 kilometre an hour zone."
Hof says it is high risk for UT to be , as he calls it, obstructive. "It surprised us because we have discussed this with UT and the municipality. Now, UT says: this will not occur. I think UT is not handling its responsibilities correctly. You don’t want to think that a motorist may have to swerve suddenly and hit a child. "
According to Hof, speed is of the essence for the Executive Board now. "Geese Protection does not want to see geese hit. We may need to take our own measures. "
