If you’ve ever encountered an angry goose, you know that you do not want to mess with these birds. One police chief in China decided to take advantage of the birds’ viciousness and recruited them as deputies to his human officers.

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As a translation of an article from The People’s Daily has it:

“Geese are very brave. They spread their wings and will attack any strangers entering [someone’s] home,” said Mr Zhang, the local police chief. …

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“In some ways, they are more useful than dogs. A household normally keeps one dog [but] an intruder can throw a drugged bun to kill the dog. Geese are normally kept in groups and they have poor eyesight at night making it very difficult for intruders to [poison them].”

Like all seemingly wacky ideas, this one has a certain logic behind it, and a long history of success, Quartz reports:

The UN Food and Agricultural Organization notes that geese “make excellent guards against approaching strangers or predators since outsiders cannot calm them into silence.” Nor is China the first country to deploy tactical water fowl. The US military employed 900 geese to guard military installations in West Germany in 1986, and geese have even been credited with helping Rome fight the Gaul invasion in 390 BC.

Seriously, don’t mess with them:

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Geese brutality!