Snowmobiles of Death

By Matt Wood in Miscellaneous on Dec 13, 2005 3:45PM

The Chicago area Canada goose population is a little smaller this week, but this time it's not because coyotes are eating their eggs. On Saturday morning, residents of McHenry County discovered a gaggle of dead geese on the frozen surface of the Fox River. The body count varies from 19 to 28 depending who you ask, but either way that's a lot of dead birds.

Police are questioning snowmobile riders in the area, and are planning to visit snowmobile dealers to see if anyone came in complaining about bloody windshields and feathers stuck in their grilles. The 8 to 12 pound birds would cause some damage if you hit them at 80 mph. If it turns out that someone did run down the geese on snowmobiles, they could be cited for driving too fast, reckless operation of a snowmobile, and unlawful taking of geese.

Sure, the geese could have been run down carelessly by a bunch of yahoos, but Chicagoist finds it hard to believe this was an accident. Nineteen geese is a lot; even with more than one rider, you'd have to make a couple passes to kill that many before they got wise and flew away, and that's just cruel. It's like someone was playing a redneck version of Grand Theft Auto. We know that geese can be a nuisance, making noise and pooping all over the place, but that's nature folks. Unless Burt Natarus moves to McHenry County you'll have to deal with it, or at least buy a hunting license and do it the right way.

Image courtesty of NBC5.com.