Newspaper article: rescuing ducks

[Miss Lydia]

How can people be so heartless? Bless his heart I hope he can find a good job better than the one he had and keeps on rescuing these birds!

 

[DiYMama540]

I know...I'm hoping since it became a big news story, he will get offered an even better job!

 

[Miss Lydia]

There is a Walmart in Asheville that has a run off pond. When they first built this Walmart and it's right along the river so probably why thy have this retention pond when we'd go there there would be Canada geese and Mallard at it. Then people started throwing all kinds of garbage over the fence, after a few years it looks like a garbage pit and no birds any longer. It's such a shame. They actually made this area with a small park with benches now it looks like poo.

 

[johntfs]

This employee was clearly made an example of by the company, and his termination will undoubtedly have a chilling effect on any unsanctioned rescue efforts by other employees. Your point about the nature of the chemicals in the pond is a key one - why are dangerous chemicals accessible to wildlife in the first place? A responsible company would take greater measures to prevent unintended contact, but my guess is that it's simply "too" expensive...never mind that a few (many?) wild birds will die from being exposed to it. How ironic that a company spokesman holds out ethics as the basis for the employee's firing - is allowing birds to suffer and die because you won't cover every contaminated pond (you created) ethical? How about merely meeting the minimum federal requirements to only notify of a bird death? Neither of those are examples of "doing the right thing". Talk is cheap.

Back in 2008, candidate Mitt Romney said that "Corporations are people too." The 2003 documentary, The Corporation notes that those "people" often functioned like psychopaths obsessed with the pursuit of profit. Ducks, geese and swans aren't customers. They don't have money. So, yes, that company is only going to do the absolute minimum required by law to protect them. Could they fence and cover the pond so that wild birds couldn't get at it? Sure. It's be pocket change for them. Will they? No, because that pocket change comes out of their profit and profit is all.

There is a Walmart in Asheville that has a run off pond. When they first built this Walmart and it's right along the river so probably why thy have this retention pond when we'd go there there would be Canada geese and Mallard at it. Then people started throwing all kinds of garbage over the fence, after a few years it looks like a garbage pit and no birds any longer. It's such a shame. They actually made this area with a small park with benches now it looks like poo.

People are A-holes. There's a reason that when the word, "public" is used as a adjective, it denotes something often perceived as gross, nasty, shady or unsafe. Public parks. Public transportation. Public restrooms. Public service (politics).

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

There is a Walmart in Asheville that has a run off pond. When they first built this Walmart and it's right along the river so probably why thy have this retention pond when we'd go there there would be Canada geese and Mallard at it. Then people started throwing all kinds of garbage over the fence, after a few years it looks like a garbage pit and no birds any longer. It's such a shame. They actually made this area with a small park with benches now it looks like poo.

That's awful! Human behavior, especially where it's ultimately self-harming (even if it takes a while for the effects to have a direct impact) is just puzzling. I guess we'll "reap what we sow".

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Back in 2008, candidate Mitt Romney said that "Corporations are people too." The 2003 documentary, The Corporation notes that those "people" often functioned like psychopaths obsessed with the pursuit of profit. Ducks, geese and swans aren't customers. They don't have money. So, yes, that company is only going to do the absolute minimum required by law to protect them. Could they fence and cover the pond so that wild birds couldn't get at it? Sure. It's be pocket change for them. Will they? No, because that pocket change comes out of their profit and profit is all.

The idea that corporations could, for legal purposes, be considered persons - with the same rights - under the 14th Amendment defies logic. A corporation is not a person, and to confer personhood on an artificial construct wholly unlike a sentient being speaks to a much bigger problem than unrepentant polluters...but it does explain why companies like the one in the article think it's ok to justify their bad behavior by spouting the "ethics" defense. It's truly disheartening to see the erosion of ethics and integrity in our society today, undermined by companies like this one twisting what should be a moral compass into something that better fits their money-making agenda.

They can take their pursuit of profits and stuff it.

It's been fun having this discussion.