Coot Slaughter
The city of Oxnard continues to kill birds at the River Ridge golf course and to lie about why it is doing it. The general manager said they have tried to remove the coots by other means but those alternatives did not work.
However, in talking to Humane Society volunteers, just the opposite is true. They suggested over a year ago planting bushes (which they offered to buy) around the golf course ponds as a way of discouraging the birds from landing there. But the city said no.
The volunteers even offered to catch and relocate the birds to Port Hueneme and got a permit from that city to do so but an Oxnard city employee called Port Hueneme and got them to change their mind.
Meanwhile, the staff at the golf course continues its slaughter, blowing off beaks and feet and leaving injured birds to die slowly until someone comes along and bashes their brains out with a shovel. (It’s all on videotape, folks).
DAWN HODSON
Ventura
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