In a month that so far has seen nothing but violence and carnage, it just keeps coming.
Today, this news out of Rhode Island:
410 geese rounded up and killed.
The claim this time is that the geese were "polluting" the ponds.
"Waterfowl polluting water."
Imagine that?
This makes as much sense as claiming that, "fish are polluting the oceans."
Then again, little in the short article makes sense.
Such as the claim by officials that they "oiled 400 eggs this month and prevented them from hatching."
Geese lay eggs in April. The eggs would have hatched two months ago and the goslings would have been close to flying by now.
But, we will never know exactly how many goslings never got that chance and instead, died brutally with their parents and siblings.
Because despite the false claim of "oiling eggs," it was apparently easier to just kill the geese in Rhode Island -- as it was on Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge two weeks ago and a bunch of New York City parks -- and then lie about it.
Once again, it is hard to tell who is at fault for all the false and misleading reporting.
Lazy, rushed or incompetent journalists?
Or, lying officials, USDA and politicians?
The odds would suggest mostly the latter, though journalists bare some responsibility for failures to do any research or ask questions.
The irony in this short piece is it is not only geese being scapegoated for whatever water pollution problems exist on Rhode Island, but also those people who may feed the geese.
Geese do not depend upon humans for food (though like most animals and humans, they enjoy the occasional treat). As long as there is grass, water and insects, geese will never starve.
In fact, even in locations without grass (like the Reservoir in Central Park) geese can easily live on water plants, weeds and even leaves from small trees.
Geese are amazingly adaptable animals.
A community that thus puts up "No Feeding" signs without doing anything more (especially egg addling) will eventually be making up excuses for killing geese.
Just as Rhode Island and too many other lazy (and apparently lying) communities like these.
The real obscenity in this and so many other similar massacres is that in another week or two, the geese would have been flying and most would have left anyway.
But, the mayor and other officials could not wait for nature to take its course.
Nature that after all, produces waterfowl that pollute water, obviously could not be trusted to do the right thing.
Once again, the heavy and lethal hands of politicians and a rogue governmental agency acting as a private extermination company for hire, trump nature. -- PCA
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