ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, July 10, 1996               TAG: 9607100066
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-4  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: FREDERICKSBURG
SOURCE: Associated Press 

SHERIFF FEARS FOR HONKERS

AFTER DECADES of waddling across a state road, half of a farm's geese will be moved away from traffic while the younger half will be trained not to cross.

The Hunters Lodge area of Spotsylvania County was a sleepy little place back in 1942, when farmer Robert O. Gordon built a pond for his geese.

But now the area Gordon farmed before his death in 1987 is bustling, and the honking of his geese - a sound he found a soothing part of life in the country - competes with the honking of car horns.

Especially when the geese decide to cross the road.

``They just walk out, and they don't take time to look both ways,'' Sheriff Ron Knight said. He said there have been ``numerous accidents and near misses'' as a result of the geese parading across Virginia 208.

``They take their time, and traffic backs up, and the next thing you know, somebody pops up around the curve, and there are cars stopped right in front of them,'' he said. ``We've had a number of complaints that someone might be killed.''

Knight has decided to relocate half the geese - the older ones - to Lake Anna and try to teach the remaining young geese to stay on their side of the road.

But Virginia Kincheloe, of the Pet Assistance League, said there's no goose problem - just a people problem:

``I've lived at Hunters Lodge for 20 years this month, and I've never even heard of an accident directly related to the geese.''

She said each generation of geese has taught the next to cross the road to seek food, and it's now a deeply rooted instinct.

``People tell me the only bright spot in their day is when they slow down and watch the mother goose take her babies across the road,'' Kincheloe said. ``Most people get a kick out of them. But we live in a different world now.''

LENGTH: Short :   46 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. Geese from Robert O. Gordon's farm have crossed 
          Virginia 208 for more than half a century.