I live in a suburban area of Detroit where we have hundreds of lakes. So, we have a very large goose population. Many people just hate them. There have been numerous acts of intentional cruelty against geese and swans because people perceive the birds as the intruders in a human environment, not the other way around. There is a definite overcrowding problem, but it is completely man made -- lawns provide an ideal food source, many of the predators have been removed. The states DNR issues permits for both "egg shaking" and goose "roundups", but both practices are controversial. The birds which are captured in the summer roundups are often killed, but some are relocated to wildlife preserves in rural Michigan.
Personally, I really enjoy having the wild geese around. They are fun to watch, and they do me a big service in effectively cleaning up windfall fruit in the fall and converting it to fertilizer.
Its really sad that people can be so cruel to animals, and to each other. There are horrific cases of animal abuse reported all of the time in the news, both locally and in other places. Detroit and Pontiac, which is a smaller city just a few miles from my home, both have a lot of cases of dogs being chained in yards without food, water, or shelter, and there is a big underground dogfighting culture as well.
I guess I overcompensate -- I try to take really good care of all of my animals (a dog, and a LOT of birds, chickens, ducks, turkeys, quail, two kinds of doves, and now the geese, plus I just got a batch of Chukar eggs).
before I could do anything a funeral service happened to be coming down the road and another 30-50 cars ran over him
