LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Geese Must Go


Bessenyei's geese prepare for the ride to their new home. Photo Andy Scheck

The final deadline for Frank Bessenyei's geese was Tuesday, August 7. By the end of the day, they had to be gone from their owner's property.

According to Mark Robbins, Lafayette Enforcement Officer, the city had tried for several months to work with Bessenyei to find other housing for the geese after a neighbor complained, but no one could provide an alternative. "We don't want to force him to euthanize them," said Robbins, "but the property is in a R10 district (residential with no farm animal or fowl of any type); if someone complains, we have to enforce the code."

Bessenyei was quite upset when we talked to him on the morning of the deadline. "These are my babies," he said. "They follow me everywhere. I could never kill them." Bessenyei says he's called everywhere to try to find a place for his Canadian geese, but nobody wanted them. He had trouble understanding why he had to get rid of the geese. "They don't bother anybody," added the man who has lived in the same one-plus acre property in Lafayette for 43 years, and has had the geese at his home for the past four. "This is a very sad story, these geese are a couple and they are mates for life."

Later that day, Bessenyei personallyremoved the geese from his property and released them in a local wildlife environment. He wishes them well and hopes to see them again.