Mess-making geese spared from slaughter

"Officials in this affluent suburb were fed up with Canada geese soiling local parks, to the point that mass execution was contemplated. After intense public debate, the plan was dropped in favor of non-lethal alternatives -- including deployment of a border collie in a life jacket, yapping from aboard a kayak."

---oh, everyone says, we all saw Auntie Mame, we all (think we) know about Greenwich, Connecticut -- they're so stuck up ... those poor birds ... I'm not defending people I don't know, but in realistic terms, just in case YOU don't know -- EACH Canada goose drops around 3 POUNDS of crap EACH day.

"Protected by the federal government, which must grant permits for any slaughter, Canada geese have multiplied dramatically in Atlantic Coast and Midwestern states. There are now an estimated 2.6 million resident Canada geese in the United States who don't migrate; they prefer wide-open, mowed grass to natural terrain, so their prolific droppings often litter parks and golf courses...

"Two geese in the park are cute -- 1,000 geese are not so cute," said Nicholas Throckmorton, a Wildlife Service spokesman.

---THREE POUNDS OF CRAP PER BIRD PER DAY. And you complain about the panhandler who pees in your alley.


... town officials announced June 1 that they would pursue a non-lethal plan devised by a Virginia-based group called GeesePeace ... two border collies -- one by land, one by kayak -- chased a dozen geese away. Feld explained that the collies, though trained as herders who would not attack, are nonetheless viewed by the geese as menacing predators.

--- but wait -- here's where some fun begins...

"The GeesePeace plan, tried by a dozen or so towns in other states, includes harassment by dogs and an educational campaign to persuade people not to feed the geese. A third component, which won't start in Greenwich until next spring's nesting season, calls for volunteers to find nests and cover each egg with corn oil, a technique which prevents hatching. "

---So they're talking about Goose abortion. Killing any further growth of fertilized eggs that, if left to mom and pop goose, will become big full-grown magnificent honking crap machines.

Is this a job for the Anti-Choice crowd?

I'm pretty strong about animal rights, and I've NEVER met an abortion foe among the ranks of us animal crazies.

Now that necropsy has proven that the Unfortunate Mrs. Schiavo was not seeing and smiling at her parents, but was completely blind, didn't have enough basic neural material left to EVER be brought back, and had NOT been beaten or abused, perhaps we'll see one of the great grotesque odd-couple alliances of modern political history -- Anti-Choice Fundies buddying up with Buddhist, Taoist, Jain, Yoruba, Voudon, et al Animal rights activists to bedevil White Christian Greenwich-ers.

(Well those so-call Pro-Life folk are certainly NOT going to complain about Iraq, where our tax money is being used to pay for the Bushwah War that's killing thousands of fully-developed walking , talking post-fetal babies every day. And perhaps a good number of late-term pre-born fetal people, given that gravid women don't run too fast.)

Could be lots of fun to watch.

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