Members of one of the UK’s most prestigious tennis clubs are “furious” after a gaggle of geese were secretly culled after making a mess on the courts. The management at St George’s Hill Lawn Tennis Club in Weybridge, Surrey, hired a marksman to shoot the resident Canada geese last month.
Residents reported hearing gunshots at around 5.25am on July 16, with eight birds, including goslings, later discovered to have been killed. The 16-acre club, set in a gated estate, has long been popular with celebrities and billionaires, with famous residents including John Lennon, Jenson Button and Sue Barker.
Club details and history
The club has 3,700 members, with annual fees of £2,664 and an entrance charge for new members of £2,000. It contains 34 tennis courts, including grass, clay and indoor surfaces, as well as a swimming pool and clubhouse. St George’s was the setting for Emma Raducanu’s victory in the UK Pro Series and Classic Tournament in 2020, just a year before she won the US Open.
The club has previously embraced the resident geese online, sharing photographs of them on their social media channels. In April last year the club shared a photo of two young birds waddling, with the caption: “We have baby goslings on our Lakeside Terrace!” And in 2024, a photo of two adult birds and two goslings walking across a tennis court in the rain was captioned: “Canadian geese family enjoyed the courts today.”
Outcry and concerns
The cull was confirmed to members of the local residents’ association in an email. An adult goose and a gosling were found “in a distressed state” wandering the local area on the day of the cull, according to a social media post. The post read: “The tennis club claim they were pests and murdered them by the club’s lake which they used as their home much to the delight of the young and old club members. Such barbaric action in a situation where local wildlife organisations would have taken them in.”
Members have reacted with outrage to the cull, claiming the birds were part of the “beauty” of the club and that they were not consulted before it occurred. One member told The Times: “The members have always liked the geese. It is sometimes a bit annoying because they amble on to the courts and leave their poo. But that does not mean they had to be shot. It’s a private estate and the residents are concerned about a firearm being brought in without any warning.” Another said: “The club management ordered this because they felt the birds were making the courts messy. There was no consultation with the members. The club is in a beautiful setting and the birds were part of that.”
Some claimed they had been assured that the birds had been relocated two miles away to the lakes at the Claremont Landscape Garden, only to later find out they had been shot. One member said: “The Canada geese were adored and loved. They walked around the club at their own pace and sometimes held up the traffic, but nobody minded. First we were told they had been rehomed and then that they had ‘flown off’. The members and local residents are furious.”
Club's response
The shooting was carried out by a marksman with a Natural England licence permitting the culling of certain bird species to protect public health and safety. Surrey Police said they were informed about the shooting at 5.18am by a pest controller.
Miles Hill, the club’s chief executive, said in a statement: “We fully understand that some members and estate residents have been upset by what occurred. This was not a decision the club wished to take, nor one that was taken lightly. It followed many months of attempting to manage a growing resident population of Canada geese through enhanced cleaning and non-lethal measures. The decision was taken primarily on the grounds of public health and public safety. Despite extensive daily cleaning by multiple members of our grounds team we were increasingly unable to keep pace with the volume of faeces being produced.”
Mr Hill said that the cull was done secretly to ensure that the operation could be carried out safely. He added: “The decision reflected a genuine desire to avoid causing unnecessary concern, distress or alarm over what was a lawful operational matter undertaken in the interests of public health and safety.” Mr Hill said that the club was reflecting on the events that led to the cull, and was further developing its wildlife management plan to put a greater emphasis on habitat management and humane deterrence.
Background on Canada geese
The numbers of Canada geese are soaring across the UK, with the population doubling since 1984, according to the British Trust for Ornithology. The current UK population is estimated to be between 170,000 and 190,000. Adult birds produce droppings about every six minutes, which can total 2lbs (0.9 kg) a day.
Canada geese were introduced to Britain in the 17th century when King Charles II received the birds as a gift from a Russian ambassador in 1664. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says that, wherever possible, they would “always prefer non-lethal solutions and lethal control should only be considered if there is a serious problem and non-lethal means are ineffective or impractical”. The Standard has approached St George’s Hill Lawn Tennis Club for comment.
