Whenever I read an article like “Canadian geese euthanized at Lake Sammamish State Park” (Aug.7, 2013) I’m appalled by how indifferently someone can report on the extermination of entire families of intelligent, social animals. If people knew geese as personally as I do, they would surely think the species every bit as worthy of respect as our own.

I’ve watched them go through their courtship and nest-building routines, seen a gander loyally guarding his mate while she dutifully incubated her eggs, day and night, throughout windstorms and heavy snowfalls during the fickle Montana spring and witnessed with delight the hatching and rearing of their precious chicks.

The goose situation is all the more maddening since, as with so many other so-called wildlife “problems,” it was brought on humans themselves. The old growth forests that once grew to the water’s edge were felled years ago; shrubs like salmonberry or huckleberry as well as riparian vegetation that used to house bullfrogs and provided cover for fish have been torn out and replaced with concrete bulkheads, backfill and manicured lawn grass.

The end result of this rampant manipulation is a strange new world, inhospitable for all but the most grass-loving of creatures. And it just so happens that geese, like humans, love mowed lawns. But rather than calling in the death-squad from “Wildlife Services” to fire up their gas chambers, why not try replacing some of the acres of grass with native vegetation? I guarantee the geese will move on to greener pastures.

Jim Robertson, Rosburg, WA