tompaulco's Journal: Father Goose

My father has been charged with "unlawful taking of a water fowl". He has confessed to accidentally killing a Canada Goose with a pellet gun.This is not the first time he has shot at the geese. He shoots at them when they chase his cats, chase his grandchildren, eat all the birdfood out of his birdfeeders, and congregate on his driveway, refusing to budge to allow him to go to work. This is the first time he has ever actually hit one, and unfortunately, it died. Naturally, for this first ever occurence, a treehugger (driving a big american pickup truck) was there to witness and to accost my father. My father was frightened by the man's behaviour, and it was a race to see who would call the police first. The police came, and my father confessed. Not having any idea what to charge him with, they eventually left. The next day, after constant badgering from the "good samaritan", they finally were able to come up with the charge of "unlawful taking of a water fowl". They asked my father if he would come down to the station and surrender his pellet gun, and $250 bond, or if they should send a squad car for him. My father said he would drive himself, to save the taxpayers some money on the squad car. And he did, and he surrendered his pellet gun, and paid $250. Now he has a court date at the end of March, and may face additional charges up to $5000, and up to a year in prison. This is an absurd punishment for a man who has spent his life bettering humanity and is now living on a fixed retirement income. My father was one of the brilliant engineers who helped Bell Laboratories to be a success. He dedicated 35 years of his life to the company, which under Lucent's horrible management, suffocated and was all but destroyed. My father has worked on premature baby respirators, cost effective home alarm systems, voice recognition technologies, and a host of other projects to benefit humanity, and now, at the behest of one environmentalist nutcake, society wants to throw him in prison. The self procalimed environmentalist admits that he wants the court to "nail his butt". he says he saw someone deliberately swerve to hit a canada goose once and he swore to himself that the next time he saw something like that, he would do something about it. Well, my father is not the one who swerved to hit a goose. Why should he be prosecuted at the whim of this nut job because of something someone else did? The nut job also admitted that he was a reformed hunter. Now it becomes clear that the man has issues with his own pat "sins" and rather than dealing with them, he is going to attempt to punish my father for his own sin. The man obviously has some emotional issues.
Ironically, my father was charged with a crime which he did not commit. He did not unlawfully take a waterfowl. The environmentalist did. The environmentalist took the bird and buried it. HE is the one guilty of unlawfully taking a waterfowl.
Anyone in the northern part of the United States is aware of the problem with Canada Geese. The geese cause airplane crashes, automobile crashes, bite children and pets, and leave their staining and corrosive poop all over pavement, roofs and anything left outdoor. It is legal in many states to destroy the eggs of Canada Geese. Why? Because it is the migratory geese which are considered endangered. Obviously if they are laying egges, they are not migratory, but resident. The law has seen the light of day and realized that non-migratory Canada Geese are a huge problem. Some states even have hunting seasons for Canada Geese. Was the one that my father shot a migratory bird? Evidently not, as it was in Illinois in the middle of winter. However, even though Illinois will allow you to destroy eggs, you may not actually kill one of the adults. The EPA has estimated that there are now more than 255,000 migratory Canada Geese, twice the number there were in 1972. However, there are literally millions of non-migratory nuisance geese. On the roads of Illinois, hundreds are killed every day. Yet none of those people are thrown in jail, or even charged with a crime.
I feel that my father is being unfairly targeted by a man with issues dealing with his own past, and unfortunately, the justice system is actually paying attention to the man.