At the São Pedro de Alcântara penitentiary in Santa Catarina, Brazil, geese aid surveillance cameras and guards in monitoring the inmates. The Secretariat of Penitentiary and Socio-educational Administration (SAP) has recently replaced guard dogs with a group of geese.
Prison officials came up with the idea in 2009, when they were cornered by an angry flock of geese during a barbecue. The prison director agreed to let the geese patrol the jail, finding them more efficient and cost-effective than dogs. The geese cover the grassy strip between the inner fence and the outer wall of the prison.
Zoologist Guilherme Brito explained to media platform TRT World that these are not just any geese, but “sentinel” geese, a breed which has been domesticated and used for security purpose for decades. The geese make noises to signal any disturbance in the environment. Extremely territorial, they are capable of attacking anyone who enters their space.
Geese monitor 1,200 inmates in a Brazilian prison
Unlike guard dogs, which require training and extensive care, geese do the job simply by being geese. Even the people who feed them daily receive no special treatment from the creatures. The penitentiary hosts 1,200 inmates and the task of caring for the birds has been delegated to them, with the assurance that the geese will easily betray their caretakers should they try to escape.
Marcos Coronetti, a prison officer at the jail, explained to WSJ News that the geese never seem to sleep. Come day or night, rain or snow, the geese continue wandering as if their lives depend on it. “They are always patrolling, walking like ducks, stopping, walking a bit more. It’s a mystery when they manage to sleep,” Coronetti said.
These animals are commonly used in rural areas of Brazil to protect crops and farmhouses. The São Pedro de Alcântara penitentiary, one of 60 prisons across the state of Santa Catarina, is the only one that has delegated geese for prison surveillance. Today, the “sentinels” support around 200 security cameras installed throughout the prison.