What About the Kids?

Saturday I met up with some family members at the Detroit Zoo. Over the years I’ve made several trips to the Zoo starting in elementary school. Whether it was with my parents as chaperones, tagging along as they chaperoned my siblings’ trips, or just going with my classmates I’ve been to the Detroit Zoo at least a dozen times.

Back in the day even if your class didn’t go on any other trip for the rest of the year, you could count on going to the zoo. For Detroit Public Schools I assume it was a top choice because it was nearby and economical. Though my parents made good money the majority of the kids I went to school with were from lower income households.

As I was walking through the zoo with my family all I could think about is how much it’s changed. For one thing it’s expensive. Kid’s tickets are ten bucks and adult tickets are fourteen and parking is six bucks. The train which was a free attraction as long as you paid admission back in the day, now requires a fee. Even the price to rent a stroller is outrageous.

I know prices change, but I think that something educational for kids should be more affordable. Walking through looking at the expensive treats and souvenirs I couldn’t imagine a struggling single mom, like my mom was, being able to afford to bring her kids. It’s not Disney World.

When I think of The Detroit Zoo, I think of an inexpensive place to take kids where they can learn about the world around them. Why should people have to pay a premium price for their kids to learn?

People are Jerks

For some odd reason, a silly Canadian goose wanted to make her nest in the middle of the grass, near the walk way at my job. Having seen a man get attacked by a Canadian goose a few years ago, I made it my point to stay away. The things can be as vicious as velociraptors.

The weeks went by and we’d go in and out the building watching mother goose sitting on her eggs and at night we’d see daddy goose keeping a watchful eye out for her. They never bothered anyone and everyone I worked with seemed to have enough sense to stay away from her.

Last Tuesday on my way in I saw that both the geese were standing up around the nest area. I walked by expecting to see baby geese, but didn’t see any. By the time I got clocked in, sat down and started working, I didn’t think anything else about it.

Later on in the day someone mentioned that the nest was missing and the geese were attacking anyone who walked by. For whatever some idiot decided to move the nest. The birds were in a frenzy understandably looking for their babies who were probably only days away from hatching.

If it had been another animal, there would have been a few broken shells laying about. The total absence of the entire nest and everything in it tells me that some human fool decided to move it. A closer inspection, a coworker later told me looked like someone had either run over it with a lawn mower or kicked it into oblivion.

I don’t necessarily have love for Canadian geese. They’re messy and can get a little territorial, but that doesn’t mean I’d want to cause them or their babies any harm. The fact that some ignorant human being can be so evil that they’d destroy a bird’s nest filled with eggs is disturbing.

Seeing mother and daddy goose hovering around the area where the nest was as if wishing it to return made the loss hit home. It took them a couple days but I think they got the hint that their babies weren’t coming back. Hopefully next year they’ll have better success with starting their family.

As for the person who actually destroyed the nest, I hope they get what’s coming to them.