Wild Geese
- Am I a hypocrite?
You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver
The goose shooters returned to the island last week. I heard shots from the bay as I was standing at the kitchen sink, washing the dishes after dinner. The shooters have visited every winter for the last few years, and I have to admit that, despite eating some meat myself, it is not something I feel entirely comfortable about. This makes me wonder, am I a hypocrite?
I have been pescetarian since I was twelve years old, and while my original reasons were along the lines of not liking the idea of animals being kept in captivity solely for the purpose of being killed and eaten, this has evolved somewhat over the years (although I’m still not happy about that!). These days, it’s more about connection to my surroundings and understanding that we, as humans, are a part of the ecosystem. I try to grow, forage, and catch as much of my own food as I can, in an attempt to have as close a relationship with my local environment as possible.
One of the main reasons for my particular choice of diet is that I *could* (and do) catch, despatch, and process a fish, crab, oyster or whatever – those cold, slightly slimy sorts of creatures. “Could” is an important word here – I don’t just eat fish or seafood that I have caught myself, but the point is I would be able to do it myself. I know I couldn’t do that with a chicken, lamb, or other “cute and cuddly” animal. For me, geese fall into that category. I really do think it’s important to have some sort of relationship with the food you eat, and if an animal’s life is going to end so you can eat it, you should be willing to at least try to do it yourself. So, is it hypocritical of me to catch and kill some animals to eat myself, but be unhappy about other people doing the same, because they are animals that I wouldn’t want to kill myself?
Most of the geese around here are Greylag (Anser anser), with a few Barnacle (Branta leucopsis), Canada (Branta canadensis) and White-fronted (Anser albifrons) thrown in for good measure. Some stay on the island year-round, choosing to both breed and overwinter here. I spotted them incubating their eggs in feather-lined nests amongst the heather; I watched them raise their babies from little fluffballs bobbing about in the harbour, to gangly teenagers, to mini-adults. Numbers have been augmented lately by others from further north, stopping off on their annual migration to warmer climes. For the last couple of weeks I have seen and heard skeins of them flying in to land in the bay as the evening light is fading.
Food supply chains are precarious – I’m sure we all remember empty supermarket shelves during Covid, and the same thing happened again here more recently when the Co-op’s computer system was hacked, resulting in deliveries to stores being severely disrupted for a couple of weeks. It’s good to have access to alternative food sources. These geese are a hyper-local and sustainable harvest; the sort of food we should all be encouraged to eat, and not just when the ZomPoc happens. (When I’m talking with my son I tend to make it into a bit of a joke and say I’m preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse, rather than the complete collapse of civilisation, which sounds a bit grim, don’t you think? Well, really I’m mostly preparing for a no ferry/big storm/extended power cut sort of situation. And I actually have some issues with calling this current dominant way of living “civilisation” though, as surely destroying our only home is a bit uncivilised? Anyway, I digress.)
I think the answer to my question is probably “Yes, I am a bit of a hypocrite”. I’m fine with catching and killing a mackerel – a living creature – but I don’t particularly like it when someone else takes the life of another creature, if it’s one that falls into my “cute and cuddly” category. It is very easy to outsource all the slightly unpleasant or uncomfortable parts of life to someone else, so I guess I should respect other people who are willing to take things into their own hands. So, I will continue to be sad for the geese which do not make it through the night, while also knowing that everyone has to eat, and that wild harvests like these are some of the most sustainable foods you can eat. And if the ZomPoc does happen, then I suppose I may just have to swallow my discomfort and hunt a goose.
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If it's any comfort, I have attempted to raise and befriend geese over the years, and I find them to be vile creatures lol. One male goose even killed my favourite hen because she dared to lay an egg near his part of the yard!
We have many geese that migrate through the prairies as well, and goose hunting is pretty big around here. My family hunts, and I don't have a problem with it, as long as it's for food. I can harvest a chicken myself, so I have no qualms about hunting waterfowl.
The thing that makes me deeply uncomfortable (actually, fills me with rage) is when people go hunting for fun, end up killing hundreds of geese, and then dumping the bodies without harvesting the meat. It happens every year. That's psychotic behavior; to kill just for fun and entertainment. That, to me, is deplorable and immoral.