In reading the June 30 edition of The NEWS, two articles jumped out at me and left me wondering: isn’t there a better way?
One was the article celebrating the fact that 7,500 pounds of food had been collected, through Canada Post, for the Salvation Army to restock local food banks which were at all time lows.
The second described the cull of 484 Canada Geese, the meat from which was offered to local First Nations, who declined (although First Nations from the Comox area did come to Parksville to take some of the meat). It was therefore simply “disposed of?”
No doubt the logistics of dealing with dry or canned goods is far simpler than dealing with large quantities of fresh, not to mention wild, meat. Nevertheless, there appears to have been a large quantity of potentially usable and nutritious food wasted.
The concept of a cull has been debated at length and deemed justified on many counts. Having finally set the precedent, no doubt there will be other such occasions arising in the future. Perhaps the planning for those events could include how to maximize the benefit to the community beyond simply eliminating the nuisance.
Larry BiccumFrench Creek
