Reports of shooting and stomping geese lead SCDNR to look into Lake Murray golf course
A woman was traumatized, a Lake Murray country club was brought to its wit’s end, geese were stomped on, and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources investigated.
State agents with the department looked into the killing of Canada geese at the Timberlake Country Club and golf course, said department spokesman David Lucas.
The probe came after reports that an associate of the club shot geese and finished some off by crushing their heads with his shoe. Ultimately, the department, which had granted the club a special permit to kill the geese, determined that no rules were broken.
“Our officers did have a discussion with the permit holder about the need to use discretion while executing the permit,” Lucas said.
The president of the club’s board said geese were shot and stomped on, adding the club would do it again to prevent the geese from damaging the course after the board had gone great lengths to restore it. But one member who witnessed the bird slaughter wants to stop the killing.
“It shouldn’t happen to begin with and the way it happened shouldn’t have happened,” Donna Shea said.
The killing has divided a wealthy community known for its easy living.
‘Not a good enough reason’
The Timberlake community of Lexington County resides on a northern peninsula of Lake Murray. A well manicured landscape along the namesake road, where even Google Street View can’t go, leads to a series of neighborhoods. Million dollar homes sit along the waterfront in the community.
Meandering through some of those neighborhoods is the only golf course on Lake Murray, maintained by the nonprofit, members-owned Timberlake Country Club. The club is not affiliated with any of the neighborhoods, the club said.
Golfers aren’t the only ones who use the course. Canada geese stroll along the sculpted fairways eating the grass and leaving what their guts don’t digest on the course, according to Albert Bueno, the club’s board president.
On Aug. 23, Shea left the club’s pro-shop and was about to hit the links when a worker at the shop spoke up..
“When I left the shop he said, ‘Don’t be alarmed if you hear gunshots,’” Shea recalled.
Not only did she hear shots, she witnessed a moment that she said has traumatized her.
She looked in the direction of the shots and saw geese flying away. She also saw birds on the ground, apparently shot but still alive. A man proceeded to stomp on the heads and necks of the wounded geese.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Shea said.
A second-hand post about the shooting and stomping of geese by a Timberlake resident on the social media platform Next Door brought out divisions in the neighborhood.
Some residents labeled the killings deplorable while others heralded the actions as a necessary culling of nuisance or unchecked interlopers.
“What they have done is disgraceful and disgusting,” Paige Lovett said. She lives on the golf course. “The geese are multiplying but I’m sure there’s a better way to handle the problem.”
“Geese are a nuisance, they ruin things. There are plenty of them, the population needs to be thinned out,” another neighbor posted.
One woman said she was very upset after having recently found two geese injured in her yard.
Others found a middle ground, calling the geese killings permissible but the foot stomping barbaric and unnecessary. Some questioned the abilities of the person designated to do the shooting. Why not hire a professional? they asked.
Shea, who has lived in Timberlake for the last year, and said she is a member of the club, described herself as a lover of animals who isn’t against killing them for the right reasons, such as self defense or protecting pets and children. In the part of California where she typically lives, people carry mace and clubs to ward off coyotes, she said. The coyotes will harm people and kill pets.
But killing and maiming the geese for eating grass, defecating and generally being geese in a nature-filled area isn’t enough of a reason to slaughter them, Shea said. The geese aren’t harming people, she said. Why should people harm them?
“It’s not a good enough reason,” she said about protecting the course. “The golf course was put here in the middle of the wilderness.”
‘Did what we had to do’
In a 2020 article, National Geographic wrote about populations of non-migrating or resident Canada geese booming over the last 50 years. The birds thrive in suburban areas. South Carolina’s natural resources department said that the state’s resident geese population is increasing and is estimated to be about 50,000 birds. Humans and geese can get along but regularly clash.
“Not only are Canada geese often aggressive, they litter their waste in human-made environments, such as playing fields, boat docks, and golf courses,” National Geographic wrote. “A 50-goose flock can produce a staggering two-and-a-half tons of poop per year.”
The goose poop was one reason Timberlake Country Club took action against the birds, according to Bueno, the club board’s president. Golfers couldn’t even putt on some of the greens because of the feces.
“We did what we had to do,” he said.
Over the last decade, problems and general upkeep at the course that were not addressed because of past financial issues have been mended, according to Bueno. The course is now more financially sustainable, attracting members and the public.
As they were getting the course into shape, the geese were damaging it, according to Bueno.
Hole 18 is described on the club’s website as “beautiful” and “the course’s signature hole.” A finger of Lake Murray dips toward the fairway. Also bordering holes 1 and 4, the lake helps create the “picturesque layout” of the unique course.
Hole 4 and 18 are where the geese have done their worst damage recently, Bueno said, pulling grass up by the roots and costing the club nearly $2,000. Without killing the birds, costs, such as replacing greens ruined by geese, could have skyrocketed to an unsustainable amount, undoing all the board’s financial stability.
Club leaders attempted for two years to get the geese to stop encroaching onto the course, Bueno said. The club used barriers and facsimiles of owls and dogs. They tried shooting over the birds, not at them. The geese always came back.
This year the club requested a permit through a member from the state DNR to kill the geese. The member was granted a “depredation permit.”
While Canada geese are protected from wholesale slaughter by a federal migratory bird law and a locally designated hunting season, a depredation permit allows killing the birds if the applicant can show they are harming an interest. In this case, the Timberlake Country Club was able to show it needed to protect its golf course asset from the geese.
“Geese taken under these permits are required to be euthanized, and the use of shotguns/shooting as a method of take is allowed, as long as no local ordinances prohibit discharge of firearms on the property,” the natural resources department said.
When the gun didn’t kill the birds, a designated person, who was an experienced hunter, finished them off by stomping on their heads, Bueno said. After hearing about the method, department agents looked into the matter to see if any permits rules were violated but found none were.
Doing what the club had to do to maintain the golf course will help keep up property values and stave off unwanted development that could effect quality of life in Timberlake, Bueno said, citing the Crickentree neighborhood in Blythewood. There, the developer sold the neighborhood golf course so houses could be built against the wishes of some residents who fear their home values and quality of life will decline.
Bueno said “the last thing we would want to do is kill an animal.” But after making the course financially solvent again with years of sweat equity of dedicated members, the club couldn’t risk the geese doing thousands more in damages.
“If they come back, we’re going to do the same thing,” Bueno said.
A bad memory
On online forums, avid bird hunters say that breaking the neck or decapitating an injured bird is the quickest way to end their suffering. One video on YouTube describes specifically how to kill an injured goose.
Organizations like PETA and individuals such as vegans adamantly oppose harm to animals.
Shea, who saw the bird stomping, is a dedicated golfer and will likely remain a member of Timberlake Country Club, she said.
She’s probably not going to stop golfing at the course, she said. But when she goes by the area where she witnessed the geese being killed, it brings up a disturbing memory that she hopes will fade.
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 11:06 AM.