Let’s Stop the Slaughter of Geese :: Argumentative Persuasive Argument Essays

Let’s Stop the Slaughter of Geese   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When I returned to my parents’ home last summer, I decided to take Andy, my four-year-old nephew, to the Park where I had often played as a child. As soon as I had unbelted him from his car seat, Andy ran down the hill toward the small pond below us. Before I could lock the car, I heard him scream and looked up immediately. A large Canada goose was hissing menacingly at him, and three others were just a few feet away. I ran to rescue Andy and picked him up. That’s when I noticed that Andy’s shoes were covered with goose droppings. I then looked down. Mine were too.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After I cleaned our shoes and took Andy home, I told my mother about the incident with the geese, to which she replied, â€Å"You should have seen the park a few months ago. The geese were everywhere. Then the agents started sneaking in during early morning hours, rounding them up, and hauling them away."   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  "Where did they take them?"   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  She smiled, â€Å"To goose heaven."   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I was stunned. I couldn’t believe that people in the environmentally conscious Puget Sound area would round up waterfowl and kill them. But at the same time, I found out from experience why the geese are a nuisance. Surely, I thought, there must be a better way to deal with problem geese. I began looking on the Internet and then went to the library to find out what other communities had done to discourage unwanted geese. I learned just how widespread the goose problem is—from coast to coast—and how many different methods to control the geese had been tried.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The problem with the Canada geese is one that people have created. Before the 1950s, when they were hunted nearly to extinction, the geese nested in Canada and wintered in the United States. Later, conservationists found a surviving flock in Minnesota and began raising the geese to restore the population. Unfortunately, these farm-raised geese had lost their instinct to migrate and began living in the United States the year round (Schnell). Since goose hunting had been made illegal, the Canada geese found friendly habitat in the spreading suburbs, parks, and golf courses, which had plenty of grass and other food and few predators. The result was a population explosion in communities that had not seen a Canada goose in decades.