Animal Blogging

First item:

"They panic when they see these things," said Wildlife Conservation Officer Beth Fife of the Pennsylvania Game Commission. "I've had calls where people say, 'You have to remove wildlife from the Pittsburgh area. They don't belong here.' Well, they do belong here, it's their home, too, and when they're not bothering anybody, we say just leave them alone." (P-G, John Hayes)

But once again:

Thanks for drawing attention -- with the news story "Fowls foul River Walk for pedestrians" (July 1 and TribLIVE.com) -- to the problem of geese in Pittsburgh and the negative effect of excessive numbers of geese in terms of cleanup costs, landscape damage, lost recreation and safety (remember "Capt. Sully" landing on the Hudson?) issues.

Pittsburgh has gone to great lengths to beautify its shorelines and parks and remove negative images, but this isn't helping. I disagree with the assertion in the story from Mark Johnson, Sports & Exhibition Authority facilities director, that permanent solutions are hard to come by. We're not talking about oil gushing from an uncontrolled deep-sea well here. We are talking about geese, in unholy quantities -- and as far as I can tell, these geese are not laying golden eggs. (Trib letters, Barry Fraser)

The political implications are ginormous.