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The geese were gone.

Earlier that day, government officials had captured 19 Canada geese and removed them from the park. The geese had been causing problems, city officials said, and their droppings can contain bacteria and viruses. The birds pooped indiscriminately, they could get aggressive during nesting season, and they “damaged park grounds and landscaping.”

“The mayor always used to send me pictures of goose poop on the trails,” said Eric Gruenenfelder, director of parks and recreation for Brentwood said at a Board of Aldermen meeting Monday. “That was always a fun text in the morning.”

Reached Friday, Mayor David Dimmitt referred questions to Gruenenfelder.

Florentino said she questioned the city’s justifications for killing the geese.

“It wasn’t something that we had the chance to give any input on in the decision making,” she said. “This was so top-secret.”

Officials said during the Monday meeting that it was the first time goose culling had been brought up in open session.

Because geese are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, a special permit is required to capture or kill them for reasons of nuisance or damage. Brentwood received the needed permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and worked with the USDA and the Missouri Department of Conservation to remove the geese, the city said.

The adult Canada geese were euthanized, their meat donated to a local foodbank, Brentwood officials said.

The captured juvenile geese were tagged and relocated, Gruenenfelder said.

“Since they can’t fly yet, they’ll imprint on the new location where the USDA takes them, and that’s where they’ll come back year after year,” he said.

In 2023 when Brentwood park opened, breeding pairs of geese were already imprinted on the park site, meaning they’d always return to lay their eggs, Gruenenfelder said. Simply relocating the couples “honestly doesn’t fix the problem,” he said.

Geese will still live at Brentwood Park, but the reduction of nesting pairs will limit population growth, officials hope.

Brentwood has tried to drive geese away before, including from Gateway Fountain at South Brentwood Boulevard and Eager Road, but nothing has worked, officials said. Some methods had too many downsides, such as using dogs to chase the geese away, because the large waterfowl could have run into traffic.

They tried chemicals on the grass, and blinking lights. They put oil on goose eggs in a technique called addling that prevents the eggs from hatching, which could motivate the geese to lay eggs elsewhere. That, too, proved ineffective, as did shining high-grade green lasers into a goose’s eyes and using pyrotechnics to scare them, Gruenenfelder said.

Florentino said that she believes a lack of communication with the community has ramped up outrage surrounding the culling of geese. “I think it angers people more,” she said.

Brady Miller, 27, of Kirkwood walks the trails at Brentwood Park every day during his lunch break. He says he’s never had a problem with the geese.

“I’ve heard of people trying to feed them or provoke them and whatnot, and then get bit and try to blame it on the geese,” he said. “If you just leave them alone, they’ll leave you alone.”

Joanna Kim, 49, of Rock Hill, walks her two huskies at Brentwood Park. She said Friday she was surprised by the culling, because it didn’t seem like there were that many geese in the park to begin with.

“My dogs sometimes try to approach and the geese get defensive, but I’ve never had an issue with them,” she said. “The poop is a lot. Sometimes I step in it. But it’s not a big deal.”