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Parksville geese: love, hate and fear

I thought a biologist would hold a certain reverence for the wildlife they observe.

I met a biologist who apparently advises the mayor and council. It was last summer while he was giving what seemed like a kill-the-geese pep talk to seven or eight people out on the estuary.

As I listened in, he was asked how the mother geese responded to the addling of their eggs. The biologist replied that they get quite aggressive and that he calls them “trailer trash geese.”

I thought a biologist would hold a certain reverence for the wildlife they observe. It was clear however this biologist held these local wildlife inhabitants with disdain and contempt and was rallying for their destruction.

Mayor Marc Lefebvre also openly hates these local geese. According to The NEWS, the mayor has had 12 years of frustration and can hardly wait for the killing to start.

When I behold the Canada Geese, I always feel a kind of love. I admire their intelligence expressed.

The parental, social and individual responsible life expression of these geese can teach us all something. They don’t steal, lie, cheat or abuse. They don’t pollute and they don’t go to war, but they do stand their ground to protect their young and teach them well.

We all know there aren’t too many geese. If anything, there are too many people consuming much more than we need. Perhaps the mayor’s deep frustration and intolerance towards the geese rises from real, upsetting dilemmas.

Not knowing what to do, he transfers it upon a few geese, working to convince others that we must sacrifice some geese to appease our collective fears, angers and desires for inner cleansing.

Although sacrifice of the innocent has been part of humanities psychopathic past, sold as a requirement for the higher good, it is now 2016. I am sad for the geese and sad for the souls that still choose such a dream.

Peter SimeonoffErrington