In August, reports of an injured gosling in the lagoon circulated on social media and among CAWES volunteers. Islanders fed the bird, and eventually captured it in the hopes of getting it proper medical attention, but in the end all their efforts led to an abrupt end for the young bird.
Beth Piercey said she first heard about the gosling in early August.
“It was dragging its left wing, and was not able to use it very well or tuck it under,” says Piercey. “Janice Halligan and I decided to start feeding it, at least to maintain it for a while. We came at regular times several times a week. It definitely became habituated to us, waiting for us and running up to us when we came.”
Kate Kassasian had been watching the bird as well, unaware of the help being given to it by others. In September, she started to worry about how the bird would fare as the weather turned.
“Would it be left behind if the rest of the geese migrated, would it starve? Rich [Kassassian’s partner] and I decided we had to do something so we got a box from the Ruddy and a sheet, and captured it,” she explains. “It was easy to catch, but in the two days it spent in our bathroom, it was honking and hissing and clearly not wanting to be there. I had hoped to take it to the vet, but the vet suggested we take it to the Burnaby Wildlife Centre.”
Kassasian handed the bird over to a volunteer from the Burnaby Wildlife Centre in Horseshoe Bay on September 12th. She didn’t know it, but the bird was euthanized at the Centre the next day. She found out roughly a week later.
“If I had known that would happen, I’m not sure that I would have sent the goose there,” says Kasasian. “We didn’t just want to get the goose off our hands, we wanted to offer it a better life. Alderwood Farm had offered to take-in the goose, so that could’ve been an option. It also makes me think that we need to set up some kind of community-run centre to care for injured wild animals here on Bowen.”
Piercey, however, takes a more tempered view.
“Perhaps it was the best option.”
