Lee Cataluna: Goosing up outrage, ducking responsibility

On the one hand, there is the particular pleasure of making friends with animals you meet on your daily walk: The dog who always trots to the fence to say hello, the cat who gives you a sleepy cat smile from his nap spot on the porch, the ducks that come running for broken crackers and bits of bread when they hear your voice.

That’s magical stuff, like a scene in a Disney movie, and if you have a keiki with you on your walk, those moments can feel precious, like daily affirmations of the small, sweet things in life.

On the other hand, there are the many responsibilities of owning property, including the obligation to keep that property clean, safe and well-maintained so it does not become an eyesore or liability.

Along with responsibilities, property owners have rights. They can cut down their pretty mango tree if they want to, though it may grieve some in the neighborhood. If it happens that the tree in your yard has roots that are cracking the foundation of your house, you sure don’t feel like the neighborhood should have a say in what you do with your yard.

In that same way, if rogue ducks try to lay claim to a homeowner’s yard, that homeowner shouldn’t have to ask permission from the community collective to remove them.

So those are the two hands. In Kaelepulu, also known as Enchanted Lake, many hands shot up and waved frantically, and a property owner’s right to remove ducks and geese from their land became the week’s overly emotional blowup in a town that has developed a reputation for overly emotional blowups.

On Monday, traps were set out on a 2-acre fenced parcel on Keolu Drive to catch geese and ducks because somebody had complained about them to Kamehameha Schools. That’s what you have to do as a property owner, especially when you’re Kamehameha Schools and people think you somehow unfairly have all the money in the world.

The cages were set out in public view and someone got really upset and wrote some very emotional things on a community Facebook page, and suddenly it was cast as an outrageous and inhumane attempt to kill all the ducks and geese in Enchanted Lake.

If it were mongoose and rats instead of ducks and geese, the reaction to eradication efforts would probably be very different, but this isn’t about interspecies equality. It’s about other things, like the power of outrage when amplified on social media, the position a Native Hawaiian organization finds itself in when everyone gets to say what it can do with its property, and the fights people pick as compared to the range of social problems they ignore.

So, OK, maybe the two hands (plus all the ones waving and pointing accusatory fingers) can come together now. It would be great if the geese and duck lovers would step up and take the geese and ducks to their own homes to love. That way, everyone would get what they want.

Except that geese and ducks are messy pests. The neighbors might complain. Who would want to take on that responsibility? That liability? Hmm.

Hopefully this community uproar can be settled by Thanksgiving so that families can go for a walk after their nice turkey dinner and bring some scraps of bread for the precious birds that are so much a part of their lives.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.