goslings

Last Saturday, in the Calgary Herald's letter to the editor, someone wrote that they witnessed city workers with cages collecting the goslings at Prince's Island Park. The writer claims the workers were "releasing them into the wild." If this is true, how could the worker live with himself! I believe all creatures have an equal right to life. To take one creature's children and place them in a situation that will kill them is extremely cruel. Sure, there are hundreds of these little fluff balls and if they survive and grow up they will want to nest at Prince's Island, but there are less cruel ways of maintaining the park's geese population. One year they sprayed the geese eggs with something that made the shells soft and no geese hatched. The fact that the letter to the editor still bugs me three days later proves that I've got to call 311 to confirm. I hesitate, because what if it is true? Do I wage an animal cruelty crusade against the City? Do I protest at Prince's Island Park? Will it bring the goslings back? Will it protect future hatchlings? When I hear the sad noises the adult geese now make, my heart says "yes!!" to all that and more.

goslings 3 Originally uploaded by Wanderfull1

In Europe Canada Geese are considered a nuisance, because they breed prolifically and make terrible messes that change the ecology. Gee, I can think of another species on this planet that does that, but we don't round up its young and leaved them to die in the wilderness. Well, on second thought, it has been done and it was considered murder or a war crime and extremely cruel.