Donnons les «oies dégueulasses» à manger aux démunis !

[Animal 0]

Feed filthy geese to the homeless, citizens say
St. Clair Shores, Mich.
Katie Rook, National Post
Published: Monday, March 12, 2007

A Michigan citizens group fed up with Canada geese soiling the state's
parks, beaches and golf courses is proposing the explosive fowl population
be culled --and fed to the homeless. A volunteer waterfront committee in St.
Clair Shores, a bedroom community of Detroit, suggests a mass euthanization
will reduce thousands of "nuisance geese" infesting 10 kilometres of the
town's shoreline.

Joe St. John, founding director of the St. Clair Shores Waterfront Advisory
Committee, says this year's population has been especially bothersome. While
he has not kept records, Mr. St. John argues an informal survey of the
town's spaces reveals a problem.

"I think it's a fair statement that it's more than it was last year," he
said. "This one park, this is the worst I've seen it because, you know, they
crap all over the place and the kids are playing in there. The bird
droppings are land mines. The bird droppings are huge. It's E. coli
bacteria."

Donating bird carcasses to Detroit soup kitchens struck the group as a good
idea after another Michigan suburb curbed a deer population by supplying
local shelters with venison about three years ago, Mr. St. John said. He
admits he has only tried goose jerky but remembers it as enjoyable.

"I don't know how [the soup kitchens] feel about it. They get food from all
over, and it's a problem for them to go picking up food sometimes because
there are so many restaurants and stuff that have leftover food that they
want the soup kitchen to have, but they can only go so many places."

In Michigan, the Canada goose population has increased to more than 300,000
from 9,000 in 1970. The increase echoes similar patterns in Canada, says
Theo Hofmann, a University of Toronto professor emeritus who studies bird
populations. Anon-migratory type of Canada goose has been evolving for the
past 50 years, he said. While some geese continue to head south, others --
often the geese fed by urbanites during the summer -- are content to spend
the winter in cooler climes.

"Birds have personalities. Some of them found it nice to stay. Once they
stayed, they had young, and the young do what the old do and they don't have
built-in migration programmed," Prof. Hofmann said.

"If their parents don't migrate, they don't migrate, whereas other birds
have built-in migration. So, regardless of the parents, they migrate."

Canada geese also tend to proliferate because they produce as many as seven
goslings a year and have no enemies, he said. Prof. Hofmann has eaten goose
-- albeit a domesticated, European species --and describes it as gamey and
greasier than duck.

Excessive Canada goose populations are not unique to Michigan, he said.
England and parts of Canada are also experiencing problems. Ontario
officials estimate the population along the northern shore of Lake Ontario
has grown to more than 40,000 from about 25,500 in 1991, he said.

Population management is difficult and labour-intensive. At one time,
Ontario officials oiled eggs, making the shells permeable and killing the
goslings, he said.

Michigan officials have tried replacing Canada goose eggs with fakes and
have even made hunting seasons more liberal, Mr. St. John said. But the
problem persists. A culling would have to be adopted throughout the state
and followed up with egg replacement and hunting.
"Those geese will just replace themselves, they'll just come right back.
They have families you wouldn't believe," he said.

The waterfront committee is awaiting a response from Michigan's Department
of Natural Resources to its January letter, Mr. St. John said. At least one
other community group has reacted. "They didn't disapprove," he said.

Mr. St. John resists the argument that the geese might suffer at the hands
of humans who seek to kill them. "We're predators. We're the top of the food
chain and it's not going to change. We cannot change the food chain. I deal
with farm people--farm people know," he said. "City folks, they don't have
that concept -- the concept of the predator-prey relationship that humans
and animals have.

"These aren't pets. There's a difference between pets and wildlife, you
know. I have feelings for pets, too. I have dogs. I am not going to go out
and shoot my dog and eat it."

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=3c0ac67a-1c35-4e56-9061-d8\
e297f50677

[animo-aequoanimo 0]

Aux nouvelles, ce matin, ils parlent d'une porcherie dans laquelle 500 pauvres bêtes ont péri.

[Animal 0]

Encore ? Sais-tu où Cé ?

[animo-aequoanimo 0]

Je n'ai pas retenu où, Do.

[Animal 0]

OK Cé ! J'ai trouvé et posté dans forum...