Jim Reed, Governors Island’s director of park and public space, adopted a 5-year-old border collie named Max and molded his natural talent, sensei-like, into the Island’s first line of defense against geese that eat too much grass and poop all over the place.
“Our turfs are getting decimated [by the geese],” Reed told DNAinfo. “They come in and eat all the greenery, they’re like locusts,” and then they shit it all out. When geese congregate, they leave behind an astonishing amount of excrement. So Max was brought in to use his herding skills to disperse the birds. He can clear out hundreds of birds in a few seconds, and he’s trained never to bite.
Max is allegedly also a real sweetheart, running up to greet any visitor he sees. Apparently Max grew up on a sheep farm, but he wasn’t cut out for the lonely life of a shepherd. So now he’s been transferred to a place where he gets to meet all kinds of different people all the time. And as the only dog on the island, he’ll always be the center of attention.
(Photo: Governor’s Island)
