Gelderland province has dropped plans to use a top secret neck-breaking machine to kill 1,600 geese because there are not enough geese at the planned locations.

The province had given a €22,000 contract to a small pest control company to kill the bird in six different parts of the province using the controversial method known as cervical dislocation.

However, the local wildlife management organisation now says there are only a handful of geese at the locations which had been chosen, not 400 to 600 as expected. Faunabeheereenheid says it will now try to find out why the estimates differ so widely from the reality.

The use of the neck-breaking machine was condemned by wildlife groups and questions about its use were raised in parliament.

‘More animal-friendly methods should be used, such as removing eggs and using innovative systems such as robot birds of prey and drones,’ local PvdD party chairman Luuk van der Veer said earlier this month.

Nevertheless, the province still plans to reduce its goose population from some 120,000 last year to 32,000 in six years time, the Gelderlander newspaper says.