Milwaukee parks officials have hired a team of border collies to keep E. coli-spreading gulls away from Bradford Beach.

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The Milwaukee County Parks Department said teams of two border collies will patrol the beach for eight hours every day through Labor Day, discounting holidays, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported Friday.

"The beach had such a challenge with the seagulls," Parks Director Sue Black said. "This is a low-tech solution. It's been very, very successful."

The program, which began as an experiment two weeks ago, is overseen by Migratory Bird Management. Katie Gramoll, a field operations manager for the group, said border collies are perfect for the job because they "give the eye" to unwelcome birds.

"It's a predatory action similar to what wolves and coyotes and foxes do when they're stalking their prey," she said. "It's why they're so effective at dispersing these birds."