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Updated: Image of goose looking at her smashed egg in York sparks fury across the world

The picture posted to Yorfessions on Facebook

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In a world filled with inhuman tragedy, sometimes it is the smaller cruelties that spark the biggest response.

At the weekend someone smashed a goose egg on campus at the University of York.

A picture of a goose looking at the remains of the obliterated egg was posted on the Facebook group Yorfessions – complete with a heartfelt message:

  • Whichever sick and twisted individual decided to throw and smash a goose’s egg across Greg’s place today, I hope you know that should you ever trip and fall and in to the campus lake, we’ll be there to hold your head under while you drown.

    We’ve been feeding the geese for almost two years now and to see momma goose (in photos) so distressed was awful, especially as she came to show us all the pieces of her egg you’d smashed.

The post has gone viral. It has been shared 77K times, received 143K reactions and generated 10K comments.

Call for expulsion

Another image posted on the Facebook page
Animal lovers from around the world have commented on the incident.

Many were very upset by the story:

Liv Jade
I’m due to give birth in 9 days and my heart has actually just shattered for this mamma goose.


Amanda Mcewen
That poor mother goose, this actually made my cry hard seeing these photos. What kind of monster could do such a thing.


Some shared pictures of themselves with their own geese. A few posters said that the act is considered a crime under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, asking anyone with information to send it to the university authorties.

Many hoped that the egg smasher would face retribution:

Olivia Guest
It’s totally uncalled for and shouldn’t have happened I hope the person who did this gets caught and gets attacked by a flock of geese.


Ruth Halle
University of York can you investigate this please. I suggest expelling the perpetrator(s). Sincerely, a concerned alumnus


Some wondered whether people who ate eggs were being hypocritical by expressing such anger at the incident. Others said people were imposing their own feelings on the situation:

Chase Turner
There’s nothing to suggest that the goose featured in this photo laid that particular egg, nor is there enough evidence to prove or suggest that it’s even a goose egg.


And yet more had mixed feelings.

Kristopher Gjovik
I mean most geese I’ve met are assholes and I hate them, but they don’t deserve this.


The original, still anonymous posters said: “For the people who actually give a damn about the wildlife, we’ve lured goose parents away and fed them somewhere safer for the evening.”

A spokesperson for the University of York said:

  • The university has investigated this incident. The smashed egg was already rotten and therefore likely to have been from last year.

    It is common for geese to remove old eggs and egg shells from nesting sites at this time of year.

    There is no evidence to suggest a person smashed the egg.