Plotting the Park Goose "Rescue"... *UPDATE - Pg5 - w/pics*

[adrian]

Hope you're feeling better soon. I wish I were there to help you with this. It's a good thing you're doing, giving them a home. Domestic birds like this often get snagged by fishing lines, attacked by dogs or cats, hit by cars, and left for cold winters without food because they cannot migrate. It's not a pretty picture for them. Adopting them would indeed be a good move. I personally wouldn't worry too much about quarantine because they're in contact with other wild birds; if there was a disease spreading (and there are not many communicable diseases among waterfowl, in all honesty) then you would see dead birds everywhere, as most of these diseases strike hard and fast with high mortality rates. You are probably going to be just fine with these guys. I hope you can find the embden as well, and nothing bad has happened to him/her.

 

[smoothmule]

I have to say I disagree here. They belong to the city or whomever the park belongs to there. I live 18 miles from the local town and they have a city park that has visiting Canadian geese and few ducks on occasion but the majority are not wild geese and ducks. I think it's a crime to steal them here, I know of a few people who tried cause they wanted free geese and were fined $750 per bird. I thought they should have gotten jail time. Who are you to decide what needs to be there? There are always people, children and adults, at the park here and they love the geese and ducks. There is a park caretaker, paid by the city, that takes care of them. Geese mostly eat grass but they supplement them with the proper feed here and they're all fat and healthy. Usually there is a female that will set and hatch a few geese a year and if there are too many, the young one's are sold. There are no more lost to predators at this park than there are at most farms. I feel you have no right to steal the property of the city and if you feel there needs to be an intervention, you should go through the proper channels and if you don't feel you are getting through, bring it to the public. If this is a city park, you are stealing from the owners, the public. If you want to feel heroic, this is the Right way to do things. There are worse things for a goose than to live in our park here. It's very well cared for and there is no fishing in the small lake except on a few days a year for the kids only and I've never heard of a single bird being hurt. The geese and ducks are friendly and during mating season, the caretaker is there to teach the visitors about goos etiquette.

 

[chickensioux]

http://www.ibrrc.org/abandoned_ducks_geese.html

I believe the OP is talking about a domestic goose not a Canadian. Read this website along with many other websites regarding dumping domestic ducks and geese on lakes and ponds. Or talk to Jennifer at the Carolina Waterfowl Rescue and she can show you why its a terrible thing.

Also, if there is fishing on a pond (even on one day) where there is ducks/geese, there can and probably will be line and hooks left behind. Jennifer spends alot of time untangling legs, wings, etc. from line and removing hooks. Sometimes leading to severe infections and amputations.......

 

[adrian]

Granted, it depends on the park.
There is a park here, which is called a "waterfowl sanctuary", where most birds are banded and tracked, and some are owned by the city itself. (There is a flock of snow geese, for instance, and mute swans, many of which are disabled and could not fly so must have been placed there, also with leg bands on, as well as embden geese). They do not treat the nests/goslings/eggs well at all, but they do own these birds. It is a closed park; not really a park at all, and more like a sanctuary. You must enter through a gate. Only birds that can fly can leave, and no predators can get in. The geese that do not migrate during the winter are brought into captivity. Otherwise, they would die. Obviously there is no fishing because there is no lake WITHIN the park. There is a lake outside of the park limits, and many wild geese are there, but all the domestics or disabled or pinioned birds (like the flock of snow geese) are within the park at all times. There are only large, manmade ponds for the birds to swim in.

It's a nice place; lots of people visit. Those people stop visiting in the winter months. Even if the domestics were kept in the park during winter, they would surely die of starvation and freezing. People would not visit. As well, if those embdens were on the actual lake, in a wide open area where there were predators, fishing, and not such close regulation of them, I would be worried. Any time you have domestics that are not being truly watched over, protected from predators, fed daily (ACTUAL waterfowl food! They feed it, and grains, here) and taken in during winters -- if they are cold wherever you are -- then there is a problem.

I've hatched embden babies from a pair there, when I saw that the eggs had been disturbed. Well, actually, the female had originally laid behind a fence and the eggs were in front of it. Sold the babies to a wonderful home. They are indeed domestics. They are not allowed to hatch young because they are OWNED. They are not allowed to hatch young because they cannot be sure who they are breeding with, and no hybrids are wanted, surely, and they have limited resources when it comes to keeping them. The city does not own dumped domestics, who are allowed to breed with any bird they please, run wild, and are easy targets for predators, hateful humans, or as it has been said, fishing lines. Not to mention winters in which there will be no food for them. It is very rare that humans flock to geese in the winter as they do in the summer.

 

[Wifezilla]

smoothmule, we are NOT talking about native, wild geese. Those are protected by federal law. We are talking about DUMPED DOMESTIC GEESE. Dumped domestics interfere with the natural breeding, migration and feeding of wild species. Dumped waterfowl are a menace. (Not their fault, but the fault of the idiots that dumped them.)

 

[Kim65]

To hell with the naysayers, I'd be in there carrying them out to my car. If anyone asked I'd burst into tears and say "Sammy and Stinky and Poopie wandered away one day and now I've finally found them!!!! Aren't you glad Mommy found you honey???? Let's go home to your brothers and sisters now." and march onward.

There's a gal in Seattle who rescues abandoned domestic ducks and rehomes them, mainly male muscovies who's previous owners weren't thrilled with a biting dinosaur duck. She just marches in with some friends and takes them, as far as I know.

For all anyone knows you've been looking for them for ages. No one in their right mind is going to try and stop you especially if you give them a line like Wifezilla says at the end of her post.

It's hard to imagine anyone thinking they can get "free geese" by going and picking them up like apples from some pond. No one in the USA is THAT hungry these days. If they are naive enough to try it, they won't try it for very long.

Go for it Bleenie!!!

 

[jojo@rolling acres farm]

Agreed! Okay Bleenie...just like Kim says, MARCH ONWARD!

 

[adrian]

Best of luck!

 

[chickensioux]

Pics please!

 

[marathonmultiplesmom]

can't wait to hear how this all turns out. I'd get them!
Of course, I wouldn't have even called about permission so I wouldn't be willingly breaking any laws

I would help but we share a car with MIL and she is gone for the week spending all her money on quilting supplies. I'm not exactly sure where you are located but we are in the same state.



Just looked up your city... you're too far away so I can't help but I wish you luck!