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But that didn’t happen. And multi-agency finger-pointing has not provided clarity about why the meat wasn’t donated or what finally became of the deceased geese.

The plan to donate the goose meat was mentioned publicly two days before the roundup, at a June 16 Board of Aldermen meeting when city staff discussed the plan to cull geese at Brentwood Park.

“The adult geese are processed, and they’re taken to a food bank,” said Eric Gruenenfelder, the city’s director of parks and recreation.

After the culling, the city repeated the claim on its website, saying the geese would be donated “to help feed those in need.”

The decision to remove the geese stirred up complaints from some residents and frequent park visitors. Critics said the city should have taken other action if the geese were bothersome. The city and the USDA tried other deterrents, but nothing worked, officials said. Geese could be a health hazard, they said, as their “excessive waste” can contain bacteria, parasites and viruses.

“If they’re going to lie about the treatment of six geese, what else do they lie about?” said Amy Ebert, 51.

She and friend Amy Clark, 41, visit the park often and brought their kids from Creve Coeur to play last week. The decision to remove the geese still angered her, Ebert said.

“The park is place that inspires parents to bring their kids. Like us. We’re here with our gaggle of kids,” she said. “And they killed the goose parents. What a crappy thing to do.”

No donation

The six adult geese, who officials said couldn’t be relocated because the mated pairs would keep returning to the same spots to nest, were captured and euthanized with carbon dioxide, said USDA spokeswoman Tanya Espinosa. Their meat was not donated because of the potential for bird flu, a virus that can kill wild and domestic birds and be passed on to people in close contact with infected animals.

Espinosa said the direction not to donate came from Missouri’s Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Senior Services.

But those agencies don’t make such decisions, their representatives said. They directed questions to the Missouri Department of Conservation, which they said oversees donation of meat from wildlife.

Not so, said state conservation department media specialist Dan Zarlenga.

“We did not tell them they couldn’t donate it,” he said.

While people should take commonsense precautions when handling raw meat, it is safe to eat poultry and wild game birds because normal cooking temperatures are hot enough to kill bird flu virus — and bird flu is less of a concern in the summer, he said.

Where the dead geese ended up — a landfill, incinerator or somewhere else — is unclear. The USDA and Brentwood have not responded to those questions.

The goslings were transferred to the state conservation department, where they were banded and released in a conservation area, Espinosa said.

Canada geese — they’re a type of goose, not a nationality — can be hunted in Missouri during specific times between October and February, according to the state conservation department.

And the department also operates a “share the harvest” program. Hunters can donate deer meat to food banks via meat processors, including several in Franklin and Jefferson counties.

No similar program is listed for hunted geese.