SOME Americans are wondering whether to eat chicken in the aftermath of the latest salmonella outbreak.

But there’s another reason to avoid poultry, and that’s the inhumane way birds are often raised. We tend to feel more sympathy for calves with large, cute eyes, but, as an Oregon farmboy, I have to say that poultry are far from the nitwits we assume — and of the two-legged folk I’ve met over the decades, some of the most admirable have been geese.

Even as a boy, I was struck that our geese mated for life, showing each other tenderness and support without obvious marital squabbles or affairs. If there are philandering geese, I have never met one.

I remember being impressed by the way our geese shared family obligations. A mother goose would sit on her nest, while her mate would set out into the fields and find, say, an overlooked stash of corn kernels. Instead of sneaking a few for himself, he would rush them back to his “wife.”