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:
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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
Many were very upset by the story:
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:
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:
And yet more had mixed feelings.
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:
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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.
Terrible- also against the law- Possibly federal! Search the security cameras for the perpetrator!
Goodness. In the same state where mothers will allow their babies to be killed if they survive their abortion…
Ann, this is York, England ! Any opportunity to make everything about politics. Perhaps you should research some of those conservative talking points, before repeating them !!
Hold up! To those suggesting there is a disconnect by those speaking out against this atrocity, understand there are plenty of eco-animal activists outraged by this as much as the sadistic horrors taking place in factory farming, testing labs, the ‘fashion’ industry etc. And more importantly, not everyone has yet to make the connection because we live in a world with economies based on extraction and consumption and those industries have influence over our governments, and communities, pre-determining and grooming public perception about the living world around us, creating the manmade division between humans and nature (makes it easier for the 1% to extract, pollute and destroy for profit that which populations do not feel a bond with or connected to). So for those who may not have gotten there yet but are able to see wrong, encourage their critical thinking, don’t belittle or insult them! I get lit-up angry too but understand this, you are NOT helping the animals by dumping on those people who are still living in the delusions of human supremacy manufactured by nearly every culture on the globe. If you actually want to enlighten minds and touch the hearts of people, don’t treat less informed people like enemies, just provide them the cold hard facts. Because it is through growing empathy and increasing awareness we will expand compassion. And those connections are made, not from being nasty but by showing examples of love – so stop being a sh*t , for the animal’s (and our own humanity’s) sake.
Just pretend it was a cop killing a black person and look the other way
I agree with culling the children and people too. So many people let their children mistreat animals. Makes me sick!!!
I’m sure you have cameras on campus, it’s not likely a goose was able to smash an egg with this force. And if the egg were rotten anyone walking by would know the smell would be permeating.
As sad as it is it makes me think of the millions of baby chicks that get ground up alive for the egg industry . And good , kind people are financially funding it whenever they buy products with eggs in them .
Millions and millions of male chicks are ground up alive everyday in the egg industry as they are considered a waste product. Millions of geese are force fed so their livers will become ‘fatty’ so when they are slaughtered humans can eat their livers. Billions of chickens live terrible lives and face a brutal slaughter everyday. Ducks raised on factory farms never see water let alone a pond. Ostriches are slaughtered by the millions fir their skin. Turkeys are raised in filthy, cramped conditions and face a brutal slaughter. No birds ever get to sit on their eggs in the Animal Agriculture Industry….wow….talk about being disconnected from reality.
Egg memes are really taking off this year.
We need compassion more than rational argument.
Mother goose is not smashing her eggs in a sidewalk.
Let’s learn to care even uf that’s all we can do. ??
Sad for poor Mother Goose. However remember all eggs, meat and milk are cruel, not just this one that has gone viral. Go vegan and end the suffering of miliins.of innocent animals.
and just how did you grow your frontal lobe? how did you become aware? because OUR ancestors figured out how to exploit protein for the brain by eating animals, be it alive, a carcass, an egg, etc. if it weren’t for eating meat, we’d ALL still be like cattle, and they’re WAY lower on the food chain. you my friend are an extremist living in an existence that requires balance. i understand what you’re trying to do, but to proclaim that “all eggs, meat and milk are cruel” it a little much, don’t you think?
We’ve all learned how to coexist with one another (although not everyone practices it). It’s not that hard to extend that same cooperative, generous spirit to wild organisms. Earth is their home too.
Absolutely awful who the hell does things like this have no feelings
What a stupid comment
Isn’t NY the state leading the country in abortion until birth…and this is what gets them worked up?
“Where there is animal worship, there is human sacrifice.” G.K. Chesterton
I wonder how many of these people eat meat and dairy or chicken. Millions of male chicks are ground up because they don’t produce eggs. What about all those mother hens? Let’s not forget the dairy industry and how many male calves are ground up at days old so you can drink their mother’s milk. Is anyone crying over that???
@Freddy: men who cry are sexy. Just sayin.
The eggs people eat are not fertilized. They were never going to turn into chicks. Get over it.
@ YORK UNIVERSITY: Investigated? Who did this supposed investigation? A blind 4 year old? If this egg is from last year then your grounds maintenance workers should all be terminated. Because this walkway should have been cleared of snow several times this past winter. As well as the wet walkways would have washed the egg away as well. So should the investigator. And as some have that this isn’t even a goose egg. Are they goose egg experts or are they just surmising that it isn’t a goose egg to justify what someone has done?
bunch of ass whole they get theres
Let’s see, and the York uni bravery award goes to….
These specific geese are well loved and protected. What happens outside in “children’s play parks” other places in New York, chicken farms etc are animals who should also receive care and consideration. If you don’t like geese in your parks, provide a place for them to go. There is too much hatred and frankly this reaction towards these specific geese and their eggs, is a normal loving reaction. If we have become jaded towards the fate and conditions animals are forced to live in, because of our myopic view of how animals and humans can live together, then there is much room for improvement. “Culling” means we should provide sanctuaries for animals, not gleefully kill hundreds of them. Eating chicken eggs should point us in the direction of factory farms themselves and the conditions chickens are being forced into. Support the family farms where eggs may be taken but chickens are also have young as well. Support the farms where there is a percentage of milk for humans but calves are not taken from their mothers,etc. There are so many ways we can improve this world. If it’s for animals then stop the hate when people wish to love and support them. You may only be showing your lack of Vision overall. P.s this egg was smashed.
PLEASE fellow students if someone hears anything PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let authorities know so they can make the person/persons whom are responsible to pay for their cruel horrific act! I feel community service cleaning the streets or better yet make this person be active in protecting any further harm to our beautiful creatures of the planet! IF this person refuses simply put him/her in jail and miss the remainder of the college year! How terrible for them to destroy such beauty. I hope whom ever you are that Mother Earth hears this gooses cry and is outraged and one day you will get your pay back! You make me sick! I furious that I am required to share this planet with you! You will get yours!!!
Hey you folks, if you eat chicken eggs you are responsible for the same thing, again and again and again…….. think about that for a munute!
I fully agree with your comment Mark
Not just the eggs……but millions and millions of live male chicks are ground up alive everyday. The machine is called a ‘’chick macerater’
No, you’re not. To consume an animal for survival is one thing, to smash the offspring of another, for nothing more than “entertainment” is disgusting.
These geese have been around since i was a young teenager and now iam in my 50s and these geese are protected animmals and so are there eggs who ever has done this should be caught and sent to prison i feel for this mother goose and more steps should be taken to look after them and gozlings this is a criminal act and should be brought to justice
Men are not suppose to cry ??
Haha crocodile tears from 99% of the a-holes “outraged” by this.
You pay for worse to happen daily to chickens, cows, and pigs, you are the monsters.
Talk about dissonance! I wonder how many of these people routinely eat the ducks cousins, and consume other bird’s eggs without a thought. The only difference here is that they got to know the goose as a personality. But all the creatures they consume each day; pigs, fish, ducks geese, sheep, cows, the calves whose milk they steal etc. They all have personalities and emotions too, but they only get to meet them after they have been abused, slaughtered and chopped up and cooked.
Ya gotta be kidding me! The picture clearly shows and egg that has been smashed. Not pieces of an egg that a house removed from her nest. Way to be a lazy institution. Glad i didn’t go to university there.
The poor mama goose it’s awful to see her in this heartbreaking way. I hope they find the people who did this to the egg.
Yes York University it will be a rotten egg if someone has done this. Eggs smell rotten with in hours of the egg been broken.
Gibbet the b a s t a r d
Who ever carried out this barbaric cruel murder “i hope and pray something just as equally horrific happens to you and to anyone like yourself for you are the ones whom have no energy and are filled with darkness aswell as being the pure poison breed of so-called humans
The people commenting might perhaps want to visit Rowntree Park in York where the grass is covered with goose feces thus not allowing children to play. In my opinion there are too many Geese in York, and perhaps ought to be culled to some degree. While it maybe considered cruel to smash an egg, it is not necessarily as the picture presents, perhaps not a goose egg.
so we kill animals now because they poop and your Kids cant play? please keep your feral children away from shopping centres then so they dont cause issues with everyone else – maybe annoying children should be culled (killed, just say it it isn’t any better to mince words) – see how that works you twat?
Grass is covered with goose feces?? Yes it is supposed to be that way. FROM WHICH PLANET YOU HAVE COME HERE? These grass & the Goose/Geese lived here in these areas way before any humans came & began destroying their land. After all these destruction to the wilderness being created by the greedy Humans & now trying to tell that these Goose must be culled? YES IF THE CITY NEEDS TO PROTECT THE ROWNTREE PARK, make sure to cull the misbehaving children & the public alike as well. Because these areas were being robbed & taken away by the humans while destroying the wild animals lives. It’s time to cull the unwanted humans.