NRA lobbyist clucks about Florida state bird (death, school, supporters)

[ParkTwain]

This is not a parody article!

NRA lobbyist shoots down rival birds

//
In 1999, more than 10,000 schoolchildren signed a petition to change the state bird to the Florida scrub jay. Supporters boasted about how it will eat peanuts right out of a person’s hand.

Hammer was unmoved. “Begging for food isn’t sweet,” she testified in a committee hearing. “It’s lazy, and it’s a welfare mentality.”
//

[thecoalman]

She probably could have stated it better and I don't know anything about that particular species but if it's similar to the issues we have with geese in this area then it's certainly not a desirable trait and she's 100% correct.

Where I live these geese may end up at public parks and other places where the public congregates. People feed them and more start arriving, they'll take over these areas and more often than not it will be small source of water and the habitat becomes unhealthy for the geese, humans and any other creature because of all the fecal matter. Any ecosytem in such an area is destroyed.

It breaks them from their natural habitats and way of life. They become unhealthy and may not even fly fully north in the summer or south for the winter. They end up dead.

[delusianne]

Florida NRA Lobbyist Marion Hammer Hates Scrub Jays, Loves Mockingbirds, Is Nuts | Popehat

"Hammer is in favor of a 'Nest Doctrine' amendment to Florida law that would allow mockingbirds to peck to death any bird with suspicious-colored feathers that wanders into its general vicinity."

[delusianne]

Florida Scrub-Jay, Sounds, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Actually that NRA woman might get her way soon enough. "The last recorded population count of Florida scrub jays is just a little over 2,000" - Florida scrub jay: Threatened