LETTER- Leave the geese alone

I'd like to respond to the article about the unwanted (by some) geese at UVA or at certain golf courses ["Dell–icate matter: UVA sics dogs on 'Tom and Martha,'" News, June 15]. Some of the comments reflect unreasonable fears and ignorant, as well as harmful, attitudes toward our fellow living beings.

UVA spokesperson Carol Wood cites "safety of families with small children, damage to landscape, and the goose droppings" as reasons for not wanting the geese to live at Dell Pond. Any child small enough to be harmed by a goose is too small to be unattended outside. A child that small could walk into the street and be hit by a car. Should we therefore destroy all cars?

As far as the possible landscape damage, what does it really matter if certain small flowers or plants won't survive there? I consider the life of a sentient being more important than a bunch of daisies (even though daisies are nice).

And, finally, would the person who never poops please step forward? In fact, everyone's poop in Charlottesville comes to my neighborhood to be processed near the Rivanna River, and I have to smell it at my house every warm summer night. Should we get rid of all the poopers in town?

Goose droppings don't even smell bad. And they biodegrade quite nicely, unlike all the garbage that humans leave behind.

Then we have the "problem" of the geese on the golf course. Once again, I believe that a living being is more important than someone's golf game. Perhaps I had a more "conservative" upbringing. Brian Daly says the "problem with these resident geese is that they mate for life" and calls their population growth "exponential." May I remind Daly that there sure are a lot of married people these days in Charlottesville, and many of them are popping out babies just like the geese. At least the geese have a lower divorce rate.

Finally, in response to Marlene Condon, who would prefer to see the geese killed and cites lack of predators as the real cause of the problem, I say, "Think a little bit more deeply." The true cause of the so called "problem" of the geese is the fear and selfishness of those who see it as a problem. 

This selfishness of each one of us is the cause of every suffering in the world, and the sooner we wake up, the sooner we will see that being selfless and caring about all living beings would create heaven on earth.

Stacey Gallup
Spokeswoman for Sentient Beings on Earth

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