Capturing a Canada goose who was gravely injured by fishing line, and a metal cuff placed by wildlife managers.
By Stephanie Thompson
PHOTO © STEPHANIE THOMPSON
while scrolling the Nextdoor app one day, I saw a post about a goose at Overlook Park in Dutchess County, NY. His leg had gotten tangled in fishing line and he was unable to put his foot down. The post was filled with comments of people trying to leave information that could help, others expressing their sadness, and many stating their anger towards whomever left the fishing line. When I realized this post had been made 5 days before, I commented, “Has anyone helped the goose yet?” The next morning, I quickly got a notification from a woman who said that the goose was still at the park. At this point, I was so upset knowing that the goose had now been in pain, stuck, and hopping on one foot for at least a week with no relief. I knew I had to go to the park and help the goose.
I went online and came across the Wildlife Watch hotline. I got a call back and found out about a woman who lived two minutes away from the park. I called her and she said she had actually been to the park earlier that day trying to catch the goose, but couldn’t get him because he kept flying into the water. I felt discouraged, but when I told her that the goose was now in the football field far away from the water, she told me, “Stay there and keep sight of the goose, I’ll be right over."
She showed up almost immediately, and we both got out of our cars in spite of the torrential downpour. My boyfriend Jeremy also showed up to help. We all walked towards the field, trying our best not to scare the goose as we got closer. At first, the goose tried to just hop away slowly, but as the rehabber got close enough to catch him with her net, the goose took off and flew to the other side of the field. We tried running towards the goose in different directions, and even took turns with the net, but the goose used all his energy to keep flying far away from us. Running back and forth in the rain, we began to think that catching him would be impossible. Then, as he made one more attempt to fly into the woods, where we wouldn’t have been able to get him, miraculously he landed at the edge of the field, allowing Jeremy to catch him with the net. When the rehabber picked up the goose up to inspect him, my heart sank to see that not only was the fishing line still wrapped around his leg, but the leg was barely hanging on as the goose had been pulling endlessly at the fishing line to try to get it off. We rushed down the street to a rescue and sanctuary where they finally took the fishing line off the goose and bandaged his leg temporarily.
I was told that the leg would have to be amputated, but that the goose could still live just fine without it and would be sent to a rehabilitator. I was relieved to know that the goose was safe now and was on his way to healing and living a much happier life. Jeremy and I went home with the biggest mix of emotions, switching between being proud that we actually saved the goose, to feeling devastated that he went through so much suffering over something so careless and preventable.
It takes a village, and I’m so grateful to Wildlife Watch, the Hudson Valley Animal Rescue, the woman who helped, Jeremy, Lorie (who posted about the goose), Kim for trying to help all week, and everyone else who cared enough to try and help. I’m glad this story had a somewhat happy ending, but I hope that it can help inspire change so that animals can live freely in their habitats without having to suffer from the carelessness of humans.
