Me thinks the lady doth protest too much...


----- Original Message -----
From: <MBlanchrd at aol.com>
To: <TWEETERS at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2001 5:28 PM
Subject: More on starlings


> Tweeters,
>
> To the overwrought and rhetoric-shrieking people who flamed me...if you
had
> bothered to actually READ the plans for the trap, you would have seen that
> the trapped starling is totally unharmed by the experience until it's
removed
> from the cage. The cage is large and roomy.........far larger,
> proportionally, than the one that the chicken you had for dinner last
night
> spent its entire life in, until it was slaughtered. (in a way far more
> painful than mine, but a whole lot cheaper).
>
> Amazingly, considering how knowledgeable he is about birds, Mr. Anderson
> conveniently forgot to mention that it's legal, both by federal as well as
> state regulation to trap and kill, or even keep as pets, starlings, house
> sparrows and rock doves. It's legal because they are non-indigenous
species.
>
> So are Norway rats and German cockroaches. Do your feelings of love and
> concern extend to these creatures as well, disgusting and unpopular as
they
> are? Do you allow them to live in your house with you, because they have a
> right to live, too?
>
> That's your business, but when they overpopulate your house, they're going
> move into your neighbor's house, and then it becomes a health hazard. Will
> you then stand and scream platitudes, and threaten to sue the Health
> Department when they come to kill the rats and spray the cockroaches??
>
> Do you live in a house made of wood? Plywood is made with glue made of
bovine
> blood. Does your child keep goldfish in a bowl (a totally unnatural
> environment for them ) far too small for them, using chlorinated water (a
> poison to aquatic creatures) on the few occasions when he or she remembers
to
> clean the fish bowl? By the way, did you have children? I didn't. I cannot
be
> blamed for the over-population of this planet that is the very base of all
> our environmental problems. Did you try to fight the appointment of Gail
> Norton to the position of secretary of the Interior, where she will
> undoubtedly destroy all the gains made in the past decade? No? Was it too
> much effort to email our Senators, who, by the way, wholeheartedly
endorsed
> her nomination?
>
> We are the cause of this mess, and we need to clean it up. I realize that
my
> killing two dozen starlings a year may not put a dent in the total
> population, but it has certainly benefited the native bird species in my
> immediate neighborhood. Perhaps you should extend your misguided
benevolence
> for non-indigenous species to your own.
>
> Michelle Blanchard
> MBlanchrd at aol.com
> Oly, WA
>