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Letter: If Canada geese culled, let’s use the meat

Remembering the stories of Christmas celebrations in Europe where goose is on the menu
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If Canada geese culled, let’s use the meat

This morning I found an article on the front page of the Times Colonist reporting on the abundance and therefore nuisance of Canada geese.

Personally, I have bad experiences with geese as they love to bite me in the calves. This makes me avoid them as much as I can and while the article assures us that Canadian geese are very gentle souls, I will continue to go around them and give them a wide berth!

This is however not the issue that piqued my interest. The article explained how this many geese are a burden to farmers, park users, etc., and I did see how they ravaged the farmland, but very naively thought that the fertilizer they leave behind would please the farmers, if not the park and beach users. Heavens know how often my children and I stepped in their “presents” and how often Beaver Lake closed for swimming because of their pollution.

CRD’s solution is “….cull, and egg-addling” to keep their numbers in check, as much as Oak Bay does with the deer and UVic tries to do with the rabbits. My first reaction was: “Great! Free meat!”, and remembering the stories of Christmas celebrations in Europe where goose is on the menu instead of turkey or ham. After quickly Googling whether Canadian goose is fit for human consumption, I would like to suggest that these culled geese be distributed to those who can’t afford meat otherwise. As for the eggs, I wonder if these can be salted like the salted duck eggs we use with our Asian meals? For the more adventurous connoisseurs I would like to suggest the production of “paté gras”?

In a time when cost of living is rising and fixed incomes are not keeping up, perhaps we need to have a closer look at culling and what we do with the meat afterwards.

Judy van der Boom

Mill Bay