The late, great comedian George Carlin once famously prayed that he would not get hit by a flying turd . As it turns out, a dozen or so guests at California’s Disneyland would have done well to offer up that prayer before they set foot in the park: a huge flock of geese passed overhead, dropping poop on 17 park guests.
As KTLA (Los Angeles) reported , the Anaheim Police Department was called to the venerable old park at about 9:00 p.m. Friday after reports of around 20 people being hit with flying “fecal matter.”
With @AnaheimFire at Disney – NO crime occurred – guests hit with fecal matter- appears to be geese that flew over. No injuries
— Anaheim PD (@AnaheimPD) June 10, 2017
If you’re wondering why the police were called over something so mundane as goose poop, well so is this writer. Neither KTLA nor the Anaheim PD provides much in the way of details, so perhaps the guests at first feared they’d been victimized by some criminal prank or something? Who knows?
11 adults and 6 juveniles impacted. No injuries and no transports. All guests are healthy and happy @Disneyland @AnaheimFire
— Anaheim PD (@AnaheimPD) June 10, 2017
“Impacted.” Well-played, Anaheim PD. Well-played.
Disneyland cast members (that’s what Disney calls its park employees) were on the scene to make things right, hustling the traumatized victims into a “private bathroom” to get cleaned up.
#losangelestaxicabs Goose poop leaves 17 a bit messy at Disneyland https://t.co/96dTlxteIw $lostandfound $bookataxi pic.twitter.com/9nQcYvIhY9
— LosAngelesTaxiCabs (@LATaxiCabs) June 10, 2017
According to Ohio Geese Control, geese can and do carry a wide variety of diseases , and yes, it can be transmitted through their feces.
Some of those diseases include, but are not limited to: lysteria, toxoplasmosis, e-coli, pasteurella multocida and salmonella. For these reasons, it’s recommended that people who live and work around geese and their poop take precautions, such as protective gloves.
So are, the 17 people “victimized” by the rogue geese going to be OK? In a word, yes. While it’s undoubtedly a “crappy” situation to live through (heh), it’s not going to make anyone sick. Well, it’s theoretically possible, IF the goose poop fell into someone’s open mouth (a situation this writer would prefer not to think about), or if one of the victims was actively bleeding from an open wound and the poop fell directly on it. Other than those two unlikely scenarios, the victims are going to be fine so long as they change clothes, wash them thoroughly, and take a hot shower.
As you may already suspect, animal control is a tricky business at Disneyland. After all, Disney managers want guests to have a good time, while simultaneously being good stewards of nature. Finding that balance has proved elusive
For example, you may not know it, but Disneyland is absolutely lousy with feral cats. As the Disneyland Cats blog explains, Disneyland management noticed as far back as the 1950’s that feral cats had made the Happiest Place on Earth their home. Management also noticed that the cats did a bang-up job of keeping the park’s rodent problem under control. To this day, a couple hundred feral cats – most of whom have been spayed or neutered so they don’t reproduce – slink about in clever hiding places throughout the park during the day, and come out at night, when all of the people have gone home, to hunt. And yes, there’s a delicious bit of irony in there, as Disneyland exists because of a Mouse (his name is Mickey).
Unfortunately, evolution moves slowly, and as of this writing, those cats haven’t evolved to hunt geese. That means that, until further notice, getting pooped on by a flying goose is going to remain a very real possibility, should you ever choose to visit Disneyland.
[Featured Image by Alliance /Shutterstock]
