- Jul 31, 2013
- 211
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Miss Lydia advised that I post something here about how we are going about addressing the abuse and neglect of our wildfowl at our local lake.
This is so sad and I hope that you all can join together to address this. I realized that as one person I cannot do anything alone, so I formed a group called "Friends of Mingus Park" (FOMP) ---which focuses on the health and safety of the birds (and all lake critters!)
FOMP has been slowly gaining speed for over a year now. We started after seeing entrenched abuse of the wildlife, with kids and often teens kicking, throwing rocks, etc. at the birds. One injured older goose was lame and could not get away from the unleashed dogs or kids who were trying to hit her with sticks. Often the parents or grandparent of the "offender" witnessed the behavior and yet did nothing or laughed!
That is what really got me going.
First I talked to other visitors at the park and got to know what they had seen or were seeing. Many said the abuse had gone on for so long that that is all they remembered...going back over 20 years.
We banded together. We met and had coffee at the park, made business cards, developed a list of witnessed abuses toward the wildlife. We developed a mission statement and goals and objectives. We decided we could do "non violent educational opportunities using "teachable moments," so that when one of us saw something inappropriate we would intervene and suggest alternative, healthy behaviors toward the birds.
We needed help to rescue the goose who we named "Joey," and have her seen by a veterinarian.
So we elicited the help of one of our wonderful veterinarians. Her staff arrived with two other strong men to help in the rescue, as she is a large beautiful Embden. They captured Joey and she was evaluated by the vet. It turned out she had osteomyelitis and a long cut on her chest about 6 " long and 1 inch wide! The vet treated her and we gave her antibiotics for a month twice a day.
Joey is now a permanent resident at my house, and has become my favorite pet of all time. She is one of the lucky ones.
We continued to go to city council meetings, meeting twice a month to develop our plans. We posted letters to the editor and press releases announcing our thanks to the city for various items related to the wildlife at the park. We showed the city that we want to work WITH THEM and not expect the city to just meet all of our demands without our hard work. We found other successful models around the country where healthy food dispensers had been established, and contacted the companies to get information. We found that one company will come out for free and install dispensers and then the city and the company split any profits made. We brought information and these resources to the city. During a freeze where the geese were stranded on "Geese Island" because of the ice, we brought straw and food out to the island for them, using our own meager funds to purchase the items. The park head engineer walked the large garbage cans of straw and food out to the island himself, with it on his head! We bring bagged wildfood pellets out to the park and set up a table with our FOMP banner-- handing out the bags of healthy food to kids and all who are interested.
This last week and just yesterday, we followed up with the city and the Parks commission--- we had delivered a petition to them almost a year ago---requesting that there be dispensers of healthy wildfowl pellets with signage attached describing what is considered abuse toward wildlife. We also requested that a mesh grill be placed over the larger drainage grill each Spring to prevent newly hatched ducklings and goslings from getting washed down into the drain. Making the park a "No Fishing" designation was our third request.
Now the ducklings have hatched, and there is still no mesh grill, as the improvements at the park are dependent upon grant funds which are not in yet. BUT WE NEEDED HELP NOW to address this. So we contacted the mayor and the head of public works, and they responded that there will be a mesh grill within a week. THIS JUST HAPPENED YESTERDAY-- and we are so happy and thankful that our city officials have listened to us!
I think that the bottom line is that none of us could have done anything alone. We needed each other to band together to support each other if nothing else.
And the most amazing thing is that most of us FOMP'ers are grandmas over 60 years old!
http://www.friendsofminguspark.com/
Good luch with your work, and have fun in the process!!!!!
Joey The Goose! Love her.
This is so sad and I hope that you all can join together to address this. I realized that as one person I cannot do anything alone, so I formed a group called "Friends of Mingus Park" (FOMP) ---which focuses on the health and safety of the birds (and all lake critters!)
FOMP has been slowly gaining speed for over a year now. We started after seeing entrenched abuse of the wildlife, with kids and often teens kicking, throwing rocks, etc. at the birds. One injured older goose was lame and could not get away from the unleashed dogs or kids who were trying to hit her with sticks. Often the parents or grandparent of the "offender" witnessed the behavior and yet did nothing or laughed!
That is what really got me going.
First I talked to other visitors at the park and got to know what they had seen or were seeing. Many said the abuse had gone on for so long that that is all they remembered...going back over 20 years.
We banded together. We met and had coffee at the park, made business cards, developed a list of witnessed abuses toward the wildlife. We developed a mission statement and goals and objectives. We decided we could do "non violent educational opportunities using "teachable moments," so that when one of us saw something inappropriate we would intervene and suggest alternative, healthy behaviors toward the birds.
We needed help to rescue the goose who we named "Joey," and have her seen by a veterinarian.
So we elicited the help of one of our wonderful veterinarians. Her staff arrived with two other strong men to help in the rescue, as she is a large beautiful Embden. They captured Joey and she was evaluated by the vet. It turned out she had osteomyelitis and a long cut on her chest about 6 " long and 1 inch wide! The vet treated her and we gave her antibiotics for a month twice a day.
Joey is now a permanent resident at my house, and has become my favorite pet of all time. She is one of the lucky ones.
We continued to go to city council meetings, meeting twice a month to develop our plans. We posted letters to the editor and press releases announcing our thanks to the city for various items related to the wildlife at the park. We showed the city that we want to work WITH THEM and not expect the city to just meet all of our demands without our hard work. We found other successful models around the country where healthy food dispensers had been established, and contacted the companies to get information. We found that one company will come out for free and install dispensers and then the city and the company split any profits made. We brought information and these resources to the city. During a freeze where the geese were stranded on "Geese Island" because of the ice, we brought straw and food out to the island for them, using our own meager funds to purchase the items. The park head engineer walked the large garbage cans of straw and food out to the island himself, with it on his head! We bring bagged wildfood pellets out to the park and set up a table with our FOMP banner-- handing out the bags of healthy food to kids and all who are interested.
This last week and just yesterday, we followed up with the city and the Parks commission--- we had delivered a petition to them almost a year ago---requesting that there be dispensers of healthy wildfowl pellets with signage attached describing what is considered abuse toward wildlife. We also requested that a mesh grill be placed over the larger drainage grill each Spring to prevent newly hatched ducklings and goslings from getting washed down into the drain. Making the park a "No Fishing" designation was our third request.
Now the ducklings have hatched, and there is still no mesh grill, as the improvements at the park are dependent upon grant funds which are not in yet. BUT WE NEEDED HELP NOW to address this. So we contacted the mayor and the head of public works, and they responded that there will be a mesh grill within a week. THIS JUST HAPPENED YESTERDAY-- and we are so happy and thankful that our city officials have listened to us!
I think that the bottom line is that none of us could have done anything alone. We needed each other to band together to support each other if nothing else.
And the most amazing thing is that most of us FOMP'ers are grandmas over 60 years old!
http://www.friendsofminguspark.com/
Good luch with your work, and have fun in the process!!!!!
Joey The Goose! Love her.
