Althouse: "The state playing God like this gives me the chills."

July 23, 2010

"The state playing God like this gives me the chills."

People react to what is, in fact, a great plan. I wish Wisconsin would follow suit.

50 comments:

Original Mike said...: Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.; 7/23/10, 3:59 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: The comments are fantastic. What a bunch of hippie freaks.; 7/23/10, 4:02 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Some sanity at last. But like Maguro said, you won't find any sanity in the comments.; 7/23/10, 4:05 PM
Expat(ish) said...: Killing 170K geese is going to reduce the goose population for a few years. You'll have to kill them back hard every year.

I am a DU member and the annual wild bird survey shows strong gains for all migratory birds with the exception of species that would have already been extinct without the DU/Feddie partnership. (Long term they are doomed anyway because they are so habitat sensitive.)

Animals exist in a habitat that can support them. If you drive out one species, another fills the niche. Ask any Australian about rabbits or cane toads.

So, yeah, what will come to replace the geese?

-XC

wv- deroved -> scaring the geese away with Karl Rove stares....; 7/23/10, 4:06 PM
chickelit said...: I'll bet that's more birds than BP killed in the Gulf.
But then, they're Canadian birds after all.; 7/23/10, 4:08 PM
traditionalguy said...: Just think of birds as little tasty dinasours. At last a government death panel for the dinasour threat to a human's. If this was a death panel for human threats to birds in a wildlife refuge, then the leftards would all be marching in favor. A local court just gave a man two years in prison for fishing for trout without a liscense.; 7/23/10, 4:16 PM
Unknown said...: Why are these geese being buried? They could be sold as food to offset the cost of the program.; 7/23/10, 4:16 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: The only bad part of the plan is that the geese get buried. It's so wasteful! Why not open a goose pie factory and a goose down factory next door? An entire industry could be created by this program and used to offset the costs.; 7/23/10, 4:18 PM
Original Mike said...: "Why are these geese being buried? They could be sold as food to offset the cost of the program."

I suspect the cost of the program would go way up if they were handled as food rather than simply buried. Nor do I think they'd fetch much money.; 7/23/10, 4:19 PM
traditionalguy said...: Great idea for a government jobs program...goose pluckers. The new welfare item could be surplus Government Goose Liver Pate.; 7/23/10, 4:21 PM
SarcastiCarrie said...: Oh, but on a recent vacation to Wisconsin, I saw a Canadian Geese abatement program in action. I think they gathered up the eggs or something. Anyway, this was in Oneida County and they had areas courdoned off for goose abatement. I was quite happy as the droppings left the area quite hazardous for the barefoot walker.

WV: hotsheat (She thinks she's some hotsheat, but she's just another Elena Kagan.); 7/23/10, 4:28 PM
John Burgess said...: Maguro: As a somewhat freakish hippy, I take strong exception to your 4:02 comment!

And yes, it's a big waste to simply bury the birds.; 7/23/10, 4:29 PM
dbp said...: "Killing 170K geese is going to reduce the goose population for a few years. You'll have to kill them back hard every year."

Gassing them is not a final solution.

Also, the cheapest way to cull the geese would be to simply offer a bounty on them. Local urchins would happily redeem the heads for $5 each--or whatever it costs to collect 170,000 of them in a timely manner.; 7/23/10, 4:35 PM
AllenS said...: Why not just declare an open season on them with no license fees? Wouldn't cost any government anything.

WV:

Wow! canesse; 7/23/10, 4:38 PM
The Dude said...: Americans are killing Canada geese. Canadian geese, whether they are Canada geese or not, are not our problem, until they migrate south to our country.; 7/23/10, 4:42 PM
shirley elizabeth said...: To add to Allen, by declaring open season, you take care of all those people crying about them going to waste, because, as Original Mike said, it would be far more costly (not just expensive) to process them as food. But if people hunt their own food there is no politics in it. You clean and cook it yourself and if you get sick it's your own fault.

Also, I hear that goose isn't very tasty. Is that true?; 7/23/10, 4:47 PM
Titus said...: My good name is being smeared by Tightie Whities.

I have a reputation here and I am being slandered.

Can one of Althouse's detectives do one of those blog comment archives to determine that Tighty and I are not the same?

This has been heart wrenching to say the least. And I won't even get into the damage that this has done to my rare clumbers.

Thanks so much everyone and have a great weekend.

Kisses,; 7/23/10, 4:55 PM
Goldwater's Ghost said...: Treating them like any other huntable species would be the best of both worlds - the state would make money from the sale of licenses/tags, and the hunters would reduce the number of geese.

But that would mean bunches of upstaters blasting the geese with shotguns, which would make the hippy dippies even more icked out that they already are.; 7/23/10, 4:56 PM
Joe said...: "The state playing God like this..."

It's idiots like this that cause all sorts of weird bans on hunting which lead to absurd imbalances in wildlife. You have places where deer, for example, could be hunted for food, but instead starve to death in the winter after, of course, stripping clean new foresting areas.; 7/23/10, 4:58 PM
Titus said...: Geese can be mean. Seriously, one of them went after the rare clumbers when we were walking along a fabulous eco friendly environment with beautiful crystal clear mountain springs.

I put my tootsies in the springs and giggled as the cold mountain water poured over my delicate well manicured tooters.

Thank you.; 7/23/10, 5:01 PM
Titus said...: I say shoot the motherfuckers.; 7/23/10, 5:02 PM
SpinningStar said...: It was funny to read a few pages of the comments. They were so upset about killing geese, but I did start to wonder if they would also be so outraged concerning abortion or denials of care to the elderly.

Many comments suggested moving them elsewhere (NIMBY) but they didn't realize that they are a problem everywhere!

As for being tasty as food - I am not sure if the ones feeding in NYC would be fat enough, but I imagine that the birds grazing in corn and wheat fields are wonderful. I have cooked goose for thanksgiving and it was wonderful.; 7/23/10, 5:05 PM
MamaM said...: Most dogs love to smell ass and track down Tightie Whitie smears.

A good sniff and a goose chase is good for even the rarest of clumbers.; 7/23/10, 5:36 PM
MadisonMan said...: This is a pretty good idea. Unless God is a Canada Goose.

If God's a Canada Goose, then this is a very very bad idea.; 7/23/10, 5:51 PM
Unknown said...: Hopefully, there's no one named Heinrich attached to this.; 7/23/10, 6:21 PM
Kirby Olson said...: Expat said that the habitat would replace the geese with frogs or rabbits. If the problem is that C Geese down airlines, I think replacing them with frogs or rabbits will be fine. Frogs and rabbits don't jump into airline traffic too often (I admit there might be a statistical outlier here and there).; 7/23/10, 6:43 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Also, I hear that goose isn't very tasty. Is that true?

Wild goose is tough and gamey tasting depending on what they have been eating. I don't even want to think about what they eat in New York City. Where I am....they eat wild rice leavings and other grains so they are pretty good.

The breast meat is ok if you beat it with a meat mallet to tenderize and marinate it. Although, the geese that I have eaten were wild and probably tougher than the welfare recipient geese in the parks that just hang around waiting for handouts.
. The rest of the carcass is only good for lengthly stewing.

Tame goose, like tame duck is full of fat. Wild geese are lean lean lean.

Too much work to turn them into food unless you just grind them up for dog food somehow.

Open season in the city. Yea I can see a bunch of yo yo's shooting off shotguns next to high rise apartments. What could go wrong?; 7/23/10, 7:20 PM
jimbino said...: Now we need to do the same with cats, for the sake of songbirds and us humans, who contract over 50 diseases from cats.

Then we can enlist Iraqis, Koreans and Chinese to cull the dog population and bring some sanity to our neighborhoods.; 7/23/10, 8:03 PM
Eric said...: The state playing God like this gives me the chills.

Wouldn't you have to live in a Manhattan high-rise to even think like this? The state has been managing animal populations for hundreds of years.; 7/23/10, 8:17 PM
DADvocate said...: They should have the state stop playing God even more and let predators hunt the geese, including the top predators, humans.; 7/23/10, 9:22 PM
David said...: The Blame Canada movement gets a shot in the arm.; 7/23/10, 9:28 PM
David said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/23/10, 9:38 PM
ken in tx said...: I tried to order a Christmas goose, instead of the usual turkey, last year. After taking my order, I was called later and told that geese were no longer available to butcher shops and butcher sections of grocery stores in our area—up-country South Carolina.; 7/23/10, 9:40 PM
JAL said...: Favorite comment?

“ Earlier today I took a walk over to Prospect Park and had a long talk with the geese. It turns out that most of them had no idea that they were bothering people because nobody had told them. Some of them had realized it, but were lost and didn't know where else to go, so I gave them directions. Many of the ducks and squirrels also didn't realize that they had become annoying. The insects did, but didn't care, so they're a lost cause. Anyway, the goose problem is over.”
— Back to nature
Geese Return to Prospect Park. Sort Of.; 7/23/10, 10:14 PM
Anonymous said...: What the enviro wackos will not admit to themselves is that they are playing God--by eliminating the natural predators of these flying beasts.; 7/23/10, 11:00 PM
Largo said...: Why not burn them for fuel? Like the bunnies?; 7/24/10, 5:58 AM
Anonymous said...: Why not open a goose pie factory and a goose down factory next door?

Sweeney Todd for geese?; 7/24/10, 8:07 AM
Tully said...: Wild goose can be tasty if they've been eating grains, but it's a lot of work. Can't just kill 'em and sell the meat -- it's New York, so all the slaughter and dressing and packaging would have to be done by union workers, all under the health-inspection eyes of forty-eleven different (unionized) state and municipal agencies, so the meat would end up retailing at $845/lb.

And then pigeons would move into the empty habitat, and there's NO market for that meat.; 7/24/10, 12:24 PM
Milwaukee said...: My recollection is that Fon du Lac, Wisconsin tried to harvest the geese polluting their river front park a few years ago. They tested the livers, as they would with domestically raised poultry. The chemical levels were so high they couldn't use them for food. Burying these dead geese should require a permit, as they will probably pollute ground water. An adult goose can produce as much fecal material daily as an adult human.

We have created an environment where these birds can thrive. We need to keep the flock culled. Unless they find a better method, they will need to repeat this hunt every year.

Those who are gaga nuts over this need some education on environmental issues.; 7/24/10, 12:31 PM
TMLutas said...: My father explained that it's actually quite easy to get a goose and you don't need a firearm. All that's required is a fairly long stick so that you can swing low and take out their legs while you're out of attack range. The stick breaks their legs and makes them unable to fly away. You walk up to them and wring their neck and you're done. It would be perfectly safe for urban areas.

This was part of a discourse proving that there was no true hunger in the area where we lived.
After all, nobody was eating the geese.; 7/24/10, 12:36 PM
Conserve Liberty said...: Post #1
Seems to me that reducing the human population of the state by about the same number would have a huge beneficial impact on the environment, general safety, the economy, and so forth.

OK, sure . . . . as long as I get to choose which 170,000 humans are "reduced."

Hmmmm . . . . where should I start?; 7/24/10, 1:05 PM
Moneyrunner said...: Great story. Lots of comments about the migratory habits of Canada Geese. The thing is that most of the geese in urban environments don't migrate. When I lived in New Jersey, we had geese year-round because they had food year-round. At first they were nice to look at; but after a while they were just another source of urban pollution.

word: thwat (shame on you, Ann); 7/24/10, 1:08 PM
pst314 said...: Soylent Green is geese!!!!!; 7/24/10, 1:23 PM
Anonymous said...: I hit, or I should say one flew into a lob shot of mine (wish it had been a drive)..BUT needless to say, my lob was no where near where it should have been..

No prob, just picked up my ball and counted as a birdie.

OH! Never lick your balls, when they are permanently homed at your fav, golf course. Takes at least 8 Heini's to get the damn taste out.; 7/24/10, 1:37 PM
Nate Whilk said...: jimbino said, Then we can enlist Iraqis, Koreans and Chinese to cull the dog population and bring some sanity to our neighborhoods.

As comedian Bobby Slayton suggested long ago, we could give them jobs to do this and pay them minimum wage and all they can eat.; 7/24/10, 1:48 PM
Dewave said...: I suspect the cost of the program would go way up if they were handled as food rather than simply buried. Nor do I think they'd fetch much money.

Yes. We have become so entangled in the coils of government bureaucracy that it is more expedient to let food go to waste than to give it away. You'd have to jump through layer after layer of approval and investigators to give that food away (for free) to make sure it's all FDA approved.

Whereas if you just let some enterprising youngsters knock the geese over the head and take them back home to the kitchen, you could get rid of your problem for free and the people who were eating the food would make sure it was safe.; 7/24/10, 1:53 PM
Anonymous said...: They're gassing the geese!?!? What a waste of good meat! Haven't they ever heard of a good curried duck/goose? All they need to eliminate these geese in NYC is to make them fair game to everyone, no hunting license needed.; 7/24/10, 1:59 PM
John Richardson said...: Instead of gassing them - which costs money - open a hunting season on them and charge for it. It would be a win-win-win approach. Raises money in a cash-strapped state, the geese population is reduced, and it opens a hunting location for urban hunters.; 7/24/10, 2:39 PM
Scott Pierce said...: Put those suckers in Swanson TV dinners and let's be done with it. They are a disgusting nuisance and likely delicious.; 7/24/10, 2:51 PM
RebeccaH said...: I think it's a great idea. Canada geese aren't endangered, and they're a nuisance (as anyone who has ever walked on a park path covered in goose poop knows). I disagree with wasting the meat, but you do have to take into consideration the cost of preparing them for food. But then, that could be a handy living for some enterprising young clean-and-cook. Imagine, roasted goose carts on New York streets.

Hmm. Wonder if Ohio would consider that.; 7/24/10, 3:13 PM