Every Saturday, I spend the night visiting with my 90 year old dad. This night, around 6:30 pm, we decided to go to Jumpin’ Jacks for an ice cream treat and then go across to the park to see the flock of geese that have settled in for the night. Now that the weather is getting nicer, my father makes it an effort to come to the park every day in order to watch the geese grazing.
This night there were over 200 geese grazing in the grass. Each year they seem to be getting more and more in numbers, which is amazing considering the towns attempts at keeping them out of the park, or in the lake for that matter — another time, another article. While there, we noticed a couple, who could not have been more than 28, walking their dog. It was a normal state of affairs at the park to see this. However, this night, this couple decided to take their dog off the leash in the enclosed ball field and allow their dog to chase after the geese upon their command.
Now, my dilema…. My father watched in awe and got quite distressed while watching the dog chasing after “his geese”. From my dad’s point of view, he was visiting the park to to be part of nature. But that may not be the reason why others are there; to fish, to give their dog some exercise, to allow their children to play in the playground …. the list goes on and on.
As this is an animal welfare site, I can’t help but wonder if the person’s who unleashed their dog on the geese constituent animal abuse and if so, why? Don’t get me wrong, as a young adult I did the exact same thing with my dogs. But now that I am older, my values have changed and I can’t help but wonder if, as we age, we become closer to nature instead of father from it. — wiser perhaps.
What do you think?