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One can almost picture, USDA Wildlife Services' Public Affairs Specialist, Carol Bannerman, dutifully pouring over dozens of digital images of a recent APHIS roundup of Canada geese from Gateway National Park:
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Objective of the search was apparently to find the two most "gentle" appearing photos to send to (27) GooseWatch NYC.
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In what is undoubtedly a very smart PP move to get out in front of any photos GW volunteers might capture, as well as give appearance of "transparency," Ms. Bannerman shares information that USDA WS has already conducted two roundups of geese from city parks (as well as Gateway National Park) and indicates they are contemplating more.
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She also warns that the photos may not be used "to distort the reality of the image they portray."
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The last line of Ms. Bannerman's email is particularly peculiar.
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When have we, after all, ever posted photos of USDA WS goose roundups and portrayed them to be anything other than what they were? (Preludes to death.)
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It is not ultimately the photos of goose roundups that are symbiotic with cruelty and massacre. Geese are typically captured for example, for banding and sometimes, "relocation." -- Acts that in and of themselves are not egregious or tantamount to cruelty (though the geese are obviously stressed and frightened).
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It is what happens to the geese AFTER they are rounded up in New York City that is crux of the issue of contention.
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Duly noted is that Ms. Bannerman is not sharing photos of slaughterhouses and/or gas chambers to which the geese are ultimately sent (usually crammed 4 and 5 geese to a small crate and trucked long distances).
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Those after all, might not appear so "gentle."
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But, it is that which is at heart of both, the true lack of transparency and the malice.
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Though more than 5,000 geese have been captured and sent to death in New York City over the past four years, we still do not know how or precisely when or where the geese die.
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Unless and until USDA WS is willing to furnish documented photos and videos of how, when and where the geese are killed, then they have no business (or proof) to refer to these massacres as simple "removal" (does not imply death) or worse, "euthanasia" (literally, "good death" conducted for reasons of mercy and to end terminal suffering).
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Someone should inform Ms. Bannerman that good PR (no matter how smart) does not necessarily reality make.
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As long as APHIS refuses to come clean on the hows, whys, whens and wheres of their endless goose carnages, then their motivation for secrecy is clear.
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To quote Dr. Phil McGraw: "Those who have nothing to hide, hide nothing."
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USDA WS and Public Affairs Specialist, Ms. Bannerman have much in fact, to hide, including how many photos actually looked through to find two that appeared almost kind.
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But, there was nothing either "kind or gentle" in the manner the geese were transported to their deaths or how they actually died.
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It seems in the end, it is Ms. Bannerman and her agency of extermination services that is guilty of "distorting reality."
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True reality is, that we don't have to. -- PCA
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