"Massacre in my Driveway" -- One Woman's Trauma at hands of USDA Goose Cull

Recently, a goose family like this was brutally rounded up (by USDA) from one California woman's driveway in what the traumatized citizen later described as a "massacre" leaving a messy trail of blood and feathers behind. One wonders how we as a civilized democracy have come down to this?

 

When Cindy Moore returned to her Spring Lakes home in Santa Cruz, California on June 21 of this year, she was greeted by a tangled mess of blood, feathers and feces that covered her driveway. She was unable to park her car until attempting to hose down what she later described as a "massacre in my driveway."

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/environment-and-nature/20170715/scotts-valley-residents-appalled-after-eight-geese-netted-in-spring-lakes-park

Ms. Moore later learned from area residents and eyewitnesses that during her brief absence, a USDA truck had pulled into the area and that agents for the federal government agency spent more than 20 minutes, chasing, terrorizing and eventually capturing a family of two parent Canada geese and their six goslings to haul away to their deaths.

Ms. Moore claims to have watched the goose parents raise their young and is now so traumatized by the assault (literally in her own backyard), she has put her home up for sale after living there six years.

A community newsletter, "The Spring Lakes Park Gazette" confirmed two days later, that USDA Wildlife Services had indeed "removed" the eight geese for the so-called "safety and health" of residents, a few of whom had apparently complained.

But four of Ms. Moore's neighbors sent letters of protest to all the residents of the mobile park and others spoke to the press on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution.

One woman described a chaotic scene in which the two adult geese and their six babies were separated, chased, netted and dumped in a truck with one of the agents telling her the geese would later be "euthanized." Another witness stated "The geese were in distress as evidenced by the amount of blood, feathers and diarrhea."

One seriously has to wonder what kind of country we are living, in which a rogue government agency can suddenly sweep into one's driveway and conduct a bloody, lethal roundup of innocent wildlife without any notification to the property and home owners?

While known that the geese have no rights, one has to wonder about the rights of the people?

Sadly, clandestine goose roundups like the one in Cindy Moore's backyard or area parks around the nation are neither unique or rare.  On the contrary, they are common. Only a pitiful few ever garner attention from the press.

Here in New York City, USDA (secret) goose killings are no longer reported at all by the major media. On the contrary (as reported yesterday in this blog), New Yorkers were actually lied to this year when an article published in Crain's New York this past June falsely claimed that New York City geese were getting a "reprieve" this summer and would not be killed at all. (It's not clear at this time who from the "city" lied to the reporter of the Crain's piece as the author declined to name sources for his misinformation.)

We have since learned (no thanks to the press) that USDA goose culls did indeed occur in NYC over the past month, but USDA won't disclose how many geese were killed or from what parks and other city locations they were "removed."

It's past time for the citizens of this country to rise up against the barrage of misrepresentations, cover-ups, deceptions, false media stories that bear no accountability or duty to correct and most of all, rogue government officials and agencies (particularly USDA Wildlife Services) who contract for deadly wildlife "massacres" without ever bothering to notify the citizenry it is supposedly serving and "protecting."

It is truly a disturbing and bizarre day when people feel compelled to put their homes up for sale because of the trauma and memory of a bloody "massacre" occurring on their own doorstep. 

It's a day when the lies have come home to roost.  It's a day to recognize that if we cannot trust and have credibility from those in power, we have nothing at all.  

Our democracy is apparently on life support in more ways than one. -- PCA

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