I received this Care2 petition in my email:

“Gaensereiten is the traditional German game of goose pulling. Goose pulling is a ritual that involves men on horseback trying to tear the head off a goose that hangs from a noose just within reach of the riders.”

The goose pulling tradition is 400 years old. Over time, a slightly more humane approach has been taken, as I thankfully read: The goose is killed before being hanged and used for sport.

Still, I personally wonder how many geese are killed just for this sport of tearing off their heads, versus being slaughtered for something such as filling the bellies of hungry people. Perhaps the remains do get delivered to needy people, or there’s a big feast afterwards for all participants and onlookers, but I rather think there’s a lot of waste involved with the whole process.

Regardless, the petition author makes a very good point: “It is a medieval tradition and we’re of the opinion that it’s irresponsible to teach children what we’re “allowed” to do with animals or their corpse.”

In other words, if you really need to rip the head off an animal but you’ve already gone so far as to concede that times, they are a-changing…why not just use a FAKE GOOSE?

Feel the same? Take action on this and other causes here.