It’s no secret that for the past 20-30 years, Canada geese have given this country a bad rap. Type the words “Canada geese” into the Google search bar and click “news” and see what pops up. For the sake of convenience, I did just that last week and six stories came about how Canada geese are wreaking havoc in the UK.

A headline in the Aug. 9 edition of the London Telegraph reads “Canada Geese are a monstrous pest”. Underneath, the article is summed up with the words, “We should have no qualms about culling the rats of the sky”.

Sounds a bit harsh, I agree, but residents in many parts of the UK are understandably upset about the damage the birds are doing there.

A tennis club in Weybridge, England, was so upset that they decided to take matters into their own hands and killed eight geese and several goslings in the middle of the night.

The biggest issue has to do with a Canada goose’s propensity to poop, especially in large numbers. Other issues include their aggressive territorial behavior toward both humans and other animals, and their habit of stalking and begging for food. Canada geese also regularly appear in the aviation’s Top 20 of most frequent bird-strike species.

The British Wildlife Trust estimates the Canada goose population in the UK is over 250,000 and without any natural predators it is expected to continue to grow by several thousand every year.

Golf courses in the upper United States and Canada spend millions of dollars every year trying to keep the geese off their properties.

Way back in 1998, the Ottawa Sun sent myself and a reporter down to Nyack, New York to do a story after the town council placed a bounty on more than 1,000 Canada geese who had decided to make the community park their temporary home. When I waded into the gaggle of geese to take some pictures, they started attacking and biting me. I was barely able to make it back to the car alive. In fact, I’m still traumatized by Canada geese to this day.

But I have an idea. An idea that was born out of Americans giving us grief over the smoke from our wildfires crossing the border and Donald Trump trying to rename the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America. So why not change the name “Canada geese” to “American geese”?

It’s a PR grand slam. No more, “Canada geese” this and “Canada geese” that. It’s America’s problem now.

And before you start with your, “but Fred, the Canada goose is our national bird.” No, it ain’t. In fact, our national bird, as chosen by a Canadian Geographic survey in 2016, is the Gray Jay. I know, I never heard of it before either.

If we are to replace the Canada goose as part of our national identity, I vote for the loon. It’s beak and tail feathers way better than the Canada goose, or should I say the American goose.