A friend of mine has a son who has been diagnosed with cancer (leukemia). A local (Wellfleet) restaurant had a fund raiser for him and to promote it they had a "Piping Plover Festival" and pretended to serve Cornish Game hens as "plovers."
Well, some people can't take a joke and fail to understand that the constant beach closures due to the piping plovers has resulted in people having a certain "gallows humor" about it.
See this article from the Provincetown Banner:
Plover gimmick backfires at BBQ joint - - Wicked Local Provincetown
This is why you can't reason with these people, they're so caught up in their own little worlds that they just can't see over the top of the box they've built for themselves.