{"id":29,"date":"2014-08-30T19:00:59","date_gmt":"2014-08-30T19:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saveoursandwellcanadageese.org.uk\/?page_id=29"},"modified":"2016-08-20T19:25:36","modified_gmt":"2016-08-20T19:25:36","slug":"in-defence","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/saveoursandwellcanadageese.org.uk\/?page_id=29","title":{"rendered":"In defence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Team<\/a>

TEAM CANADA<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

A full council statement was issued following our unravelling of Sandwell’s clandestine cull and telling \u00a0our story to The Black Country Birmingham Evening Mail.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cCouncillor Maria Crompton, Sandwell Council\u2019s cabinet member for highways and environment, said: \u201cNo-one would want to have to do this \u2013 but unfortunately, as a responsible authority, we had no choice but to reduce the number of Canada Geese at these two parks.<\/span>

\u201cI\u2019m very sad we had to do this but people\u2019s safety and public health are paramount. We have done this as a last resort and as humanely as possible in response to repeated complaints and real concerns from park users, including parents of young children.<\/span><\/em>

\u201cWe\u2019ve tried pricking and oiling goose eggs in the past to try to reduce numbers, and continue to do so, but we find this has little effect.<\/span><\/em>

\u201cWith more than 1,000 geese grazing in our parks and a pair of geese rearing anything from four to eight goslings a season, the numbers had got out of control, especially at Victoria Park, Tipton, and Dartmouth Park, West Bromwich.<\/span><\/em>

\u201cA large flock defecating every few minutes can deposit a great deal of mess. They can foul lawns and footpaths and can have environmental impact on the quality of parks, green spaces, lakes and pools. The droppings contain bacteria and may be harmful if inadvertently swallowed.<\/span><\/em>

\u201cWe receive numerous complaints from families with young children complaining about the mess they leave and their aggressive behaviour during the breeding season.<\/span><\/em>

\u201cThe increase in numbers has had a detrimental impact on other waterfowl. We\u2019re trying to re-introduce more ornamental ducks back into the formal parks \u2013 but before we do, we need to control the numbers of Canada Geese to acceptable levels.<\/span><\/em>

\u201cWe appointed a company licensed by Natural England. Geese were taken to a discreet place completely away from public view, in line with accepted methods. Clearly, we wouldn\u2019t have wanted people to see this happening in the park.<\/span><\/em>

\u201cWe hope this action has brought the numbers of geese down to more manageable levels in these parks, making them safer and cleaner for park users, especially children.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

This statement was printed on Sandwell council’s facebook page.<\/p>\n

\"scan0039\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"scan0041\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

MONSTROUS LIES<\/strong>– to kill a honking bird?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Canada goose has lived in this country since introduced here by the land owning class who\u00a0\u00a0transported them \u00a0here as “slaves” for shooting and ornamentation in the 17th Century. Ever since then it seems that it has been depreciated by the same set of people in the land \u00a0management industry into whose ordered little anal worlds enters the word “conservation”.<\/p>\n

The first form of propaganda towards a “non-native” species like the humble Canada is to create a series of myths about how dangerous it is, how much it costs the “precious” economy, and how it may<\/em> be a threat to human health. It then follows that anything which they, the policy makers<\/em>\u00a0believe could be a “threat” should be exterminated- just because they think it might be, just because they want it to be eradicated. We will set out here the common myths about Canada geese and aim to educate both misguided authorities and the public about goose behaviour. There is undoubtedly a certain \u00a0set of people who are out to try to exterminate all that they do not like in their God complex world.<\/p>\n

We are offered a series of attacks on one single species in\u00a0this Wildlife Trust<\/a>\u00a0document for example, much of which is down to human action rather than that of the Canada goose. If you read the document it appears that many different species are blamed for doing something wrong with the environment from carp to brown rats. Thus we see the conservationist in a constant spin of control, and their lack of being able to control their own surroundings.<\/p>\n

When appearing on a BBC radio WM show, councillor Maria Crompton cabinet member for Environment and Highways attempted to try to justify the cull and failed miserably to explain what death sentence she and her colleagues had actually passed on the geese. We defended the bird against her poorly briefed comments, as well as those issued by her council spin doctors.<\/p>\n

To listen to the substantive part of this interview click below.<\/p>\n\nhttp:\/\/saveoursandwellcanadageese.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Geese-recording-radio.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our defence of this bird is as much an issue of human psychology as\u00a0bird behaviour, and we set out this case to defend the bird.<\/p>\n

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Turning a harmless bird into a monster is what they are trying to do, but they are the monsters, fighting against their own personal demons.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 A full council statement was issued following our unravelling of Sandwell’s clandestine cull and telling \u00a0our story to The Black Country Birmingham Evening Mail. \u201cCouncillor Maria Crompton, Sandwell Council\u2019s cabinet member for highways and environment, said: \u201cNo-one would want … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"onecolumn-page.php","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saveoursandwellcanadageese.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saveoursandwellcanadageese.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saveoursandwellcanadageese.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saveoursandwellcanadageese.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saveoursandwellcanadageese.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/saveoursandwellcanadageese.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1386,"href":"https:\/\/saveoursandwellcanadageese.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29\/revisions\/1386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saveoursandwellcanadageese.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}