So sad dd just breaks "our" heart to see this happening. Makes me so angry with hatcheries which to me are no better than puppy mills to feed stores down to those who buy them on whims and then toss them somewhere when cuteness wears off.
Emergency Rescue help!
- Thread starter Vickers58
- Start date
- Jul 31, 2013
- 211
- 19
- 146
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.
Thank you so much K for telling this story of love a dedication to these wonderful creatures. Brings tears to my eyes to read the work that has been accomplished with your group working with city officials. Lets hope and pray things can get started in other ares too as folks come together to work for the animals. And education is so very important too. Hope this gives some encouragement Vickers and dd and others who want to help and feel over whelmed at trying to figure out how to start. Bless you all.
- Thread starter
- #24
Thank you for sharing!! I just sent that to some of the people i have been working with. We are taking very similar steps but as you know its a process so we are trying to have all of our "ducks in a row" before talking to the city. This interview was step one to get the community behind us.
we have a strange situation. there are a few naturalist advocates that want everything thats not native to the area out of the lake. They think the geese and ducks should be booted out because they are not natural to our lake. This is true... but our situation is what it is. If we bring awareness to the problem.. maybe the problem will solve its self with people avoiding the dumping of birds. The lake its self is man made and so nothing is all that natural about it.. but I am trying to work with everyone to move towards a happy ending!
we have a strange situation. there are a few naturalist advocates that want everything thats not native to the area out of the lake. They think the geese and ducks should be booted out because they are not natural to our lake. This is true... but our situation is what it is. If we bring awareness to the problem.. maybe the problem will solve its self with people avoiding the dumping of birds. The lake its self is man made and so nothing is all that natural about it.. but I am trying to work with everyone to move towards a happy ending!
Your moving in the right direction. please keep us updated on it all.
- Jul 31, 2013
- 211
- 19
- 146
YES! Good work! Ours also is a man-made lake....But just keep on working and have small accomplishable goals that don't overwhelm you all or the city. We have many items that we want changed or addressed, but work on one at a time which seems to be less threatening (or tiring to us!) You WILL soon see support and with that help you all can make wonderful improvements there! Keep us posted on your successes!!!!!
K
K
Update?
Yes, did you get everything taken care of?
In my case, the female Pekin was caught and now has a nice new home and new friends.
In my case, the female Pekin was caught and now has a nice new home and new friends.
- Thread starter
- #29
she is quite elusive. We tried for a few days but failed. She has actually healed up pretty nicely now that mating season is pumping its breaks a little.
BUT...I did rescue this guy that was abandoned at our lake.....i posted about it here...https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/896221/gosling-with-a-severed-foot
BUT...I did rescue this guy that was abandoned at our lake.....i posted about it here...https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/896221/gosling-with-a-severed-foot
Live streaming video by Ustream
Oh, that was you! I didn't make the connection!
I'm on your other thread too lol
I'm on your other thread too lol
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