Friday, November 28, 2014

Geese At WI Frozen Greenfield Park Pond Alive But Injured

One female geese has a broken leg and it's offspring has an injured wing, according to rescuers.

By H. Nelson Goodson
November 28, 2014

West Allis, Wisconsin - On Friday, a Wisconsin Humane Society worker and several people attempted to rescue what was believed to be a live goose frozen on the Greenfield Park pond, but as it turned out, a mother goose had a broken leg or foot and her offspring has a broken wing and was bleeding. Apparently, someone with a kayak attempted to rescue the family geese of three early in the morning and the female goose believed to be stuck on the frozen ice had moved and a steel rod was left behind. Later a Wisconsin Humane Society worker arrived, while several people had gathered at the spot to help and feed the geese.
According to a Facebook posting by Hannah Meyers, she posted, "Update: when I first got there, Junior walked right up to me talking, & probably looking for food. He followed me around so definitely not scared. However, when Scott took the raft out there, Papa blocked Mama in a protective way. Junior ran towards him for food. But eventually, they all moved farther away. Scott noticed Junior has a broken wing that is bleeding so he's probably in worse shape than Mama. Joyce, a volunteer, is going to try & bait them & earn their trust to capture both Mama & Junior. If we scared them too much today we might have lost our chance, so we stopped for now. Food has been left & she's going to check back later & tomorrow. We had to tell people with dogs to stay away so she wants to go when less people are around. We can check the Wisconsin Humane Society Facebook page or call for an update. Whew! Stacy Krafczyk, you may have saved TWO geese."
Krafczyk was the one who spotted the geese on the frozen pond several days ago and sought help for them. 
Yesterday, the Milwaukee County Parks department contacted Hispanic News Network U.S.A. (HNNUSA) who broke the geese story and said, that a parks unit coordinator would be notified of the situation with the geese at the frozen pond.
The family of geese are roaming in the frozen pond and those helping to save two of them are hoping they can be taken alive and rehabilitated. The geese saving efforts continue to develope. 
A humane saving effort by those few people during the Thanksgiving Holiday has given hope for the geese to get a surviving chance to life.

The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center at the Wisconsin Humane Society released the following statement on Saturday, November 29.

Greenfield Park Injured Goose

Over the last couple of days several people have called or e-mailed us to report a Canada Goose that they believed was frozen on or into the ice on the pond at Greenfield Park.

Our Director, Scott, who has 30+ years of wildlife rescue experience, went to the park yesterday morning to see if we could free the bird. He was joined by our Volunteer Wildlife Rescuer par exellance, Joyce. When they arrived the "frozen" goose was accompanied by two other geese, one which appeared to be her mate, and a younger bird which possibly was one of their offspring (but we can't know for sure).

We got our safety gear ready for going out on the ice and planned our approach. (Thanks, "Jason" for your help).

Scott moved slowly out onto the ice, tossing food to the trio, which were about 40 feet from the shore, to get their attention and hopefully gain their trust to allow for a closer approach.

The younger bird readily ate the food but the "frozen" goose and her "mate" were more wary. When Scott got to within about 15 feet of the "frozen" goose she stood up! Great! She wasn't really frozen at all. But she did have a broken leg.

Unfortunately, she was too wary to allow Scott to get close enough to catch her and she limped and then flew much further out, onto ice that was too thin to allow a safe second approach.

Because the bird is so wary, Joyce will offer the bird a little food daily in the hope that we can lure her onshore and get close enough to catch her.

As of today the goose's two companions had left, perhaps to find food or spend some time on open water.

Please don't go to the park and dump food for the goose as this may distract her away from our bait and actually make it harder for us to capture her.

Also, please don't attempt to go out and catch her yourself as it is dangerous to be out on the ice without proper safety equipment and these attempts will only make her warier and harder for us to approach.

Thanks!

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