Choosing “Unborn” Geese over Unborn Babies?
By Nathan D. Jones, Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, Canada
While doing research on another topic, I followed some news links and stumbled across a very disturbing article in The Hour Online, a regional online news outlet in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Apparently in the state of Connecticut there is a growing problem with an iconic symbol of our nation – the Canada goose. The birds are no longer migratory, but are living year-round on the luscious lawns, parks, and waterways of the state leaving their unsightly droppings for all to despise. Alexis Cherichetti, senior environmental officer for the City of Norwalk, located in north-central Connecticut, has come up with a way to cull the obnoxious birds.
Cherichetti and other local environmental activists are urging local residents, especially those with waterfront property, to do their part in controlling the geese population through geese “family planning.[1]
The article continued by saying,
“We are trying to reduce their long-term growth rate by locating their nests and oiling their eggs,” Cherichetti said.[2]
Apparently the eggs, once oiled, are no longer viable and though Mother Goose (pun intended) still incubates them, the eggs simply do not hatch thereby reducing the influx of new geese on an already abundant population. Hang on now, this is the part that really irked me. The article continued,
Eggs are only oiled if they do not float during a float test. If an egg, submerged in water, floats it means it is in the later stages of incubation and the chick has fully formed, so the egg wouldn’t be oiled. If the egg sinks, in means it has been incubated for less than 13 days and the chick is not matured, so the egg is allowed to be oiled.[3]
So basically Cherichetti is saying that if the chick is (in their opinion) not fully formed, they will kill it. Now before I totally lose you, and ye think me an environmental wacko, realize that I have no problem with killing the over-populated birds. God gave us the command to:
…Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Genesis 1:28.
I believe that in accordance with this command we have total freedom to reduce animal populations to unobtrusive levels, especially since man is God’s highest creation. Additionally, I have no problem with the chosen method of disposing of these birds; although it would be much easier to simply let some hunters with Remington® 870′s do the deed. I do greatly disparage over the fact that politicians and environmental activists are willing to sacrifice an unborn baby on the altar of a woman’s selfishness; and then, in a similar “god-like” decree, spare some Canada geese from early termination because, “they are in later stages of incubation.” The total disregard for the sanctity of human life and the seemingly “caring” attitude for the birds is yet another example of despising the God-ordained order in Creation. Though the abortion debate is not new, this article about protecting geese eggs, is especially distressing since the recent “taking up of arms” against abortion opponents by the new administration in Washington, D.C. who are at this moment plotting the destruction of even more unborn babies, by preparing to attempt to rescind Roe v. Wade which would permit late term abortions.[4]
God’s Word tells us in Psalms,
For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Ps 139:13-15
God cares for His animal creations, but there are no statements that I can find in Scripture, where God mentions the unborn animal, with such love and care as He does a human child. We all know the above passage clearly references the uniqueness of a human being, formed (by God) in the mothers womb, and how “fearfully and wonderfully” a tiny baby grows and flourishes there. (See this article about the placenta, for a small glimpse of the remarkable miracle of life, http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v2/n1/placenta) The thinking of these “goose-savers” is so skewed that they are blind to the truth of God’s Word, and would much rather worship the creature more then the Creator, as God succinctly articulates in Romans 1:28.
Modern medicine has shown us that, given the proper care, an unborn baby is indeed fully formed (enough) to live outside the womb at 24 weeks,[5] and reportedly some infants have even survived at 21 weeks. Regardless of these facts, in our world today, animals have more rights then humans do. If you kill an animal on the endangered species list and that animal happened to be pregnant, you can be charged with killing two endangered animals. Yet, abortionists around the world, daily kill hundreds of unborn children who are created in the image of God. Despite the breakthroughs in the medical field, like in utero heart treatments,[6] the God hating abortionists still persist at their murderous ways while “unborn” geese are given the “right” to live. This is a sad commentary on life (or should I say death) in the 21st century.
[1] Bodach, Jill, The Hour Online, “Activists: Geese droppings pollute;” http://www.thehour.com/story/463934/”>Activists: Geese droppings pollute</a>
[2] Ibid
[3] Ibid
[4] http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/women/ Scroll down to the heading, “Reproductive Choice.”
[5] http://blueridgeobg.com/pregnancy%20timeline.htm
[6] http://www.faqs.org/abstracts/Health/In-utero-cardiac-fetal-surgery-Laser-atrial-septotomy-in-the-treatment-of-hypoplastic-left-heart-syn.html
About the Author: I preach the Word, pastor a church, and attempt to provoke others to righteousness.