Geese killed in Boardman

Geese killed in Boardman

Geese killed in Boardman

BOARDMAN

A mother goose and two of her goslings were found dead near Walmart on Doral Drive after apparently being mown down by an unidentified vehicle.

A third gosling was injured and is being cared for at Birds in Flight Sanctuary in Warren.

Dawn Hayes, township resident who was walking to the plaza from Dunkin Donuts, discovered the geese at 2 p.m. Thursday.

“It’s terrible. Someone needs to be punished for this,” Hayes said. “Somebody must have done that deliberately, with body parts lying everywhere like that.”

Hayes alerted the police.

In a police report from Patrolman Michael Calautti, he said the geese were lying spread out on the pavement with several body parts close by. Walmart employees assisted Calautti with disposing of the dead birds.

Calautti watched the Walmart surveillance video with Walmart officials to determine what had happened. Calautti said a blue Ford F-150 pickup with gray trim passed a gray Chevrolet panel van, scaring some geese from the area. He said that he could not determine whether either vehicle was responsible for the death of the geese.

The surviving gosling is recovering at the Birds in Flight Sanctuary.

“He’s about 4 weeks old,” said Heather Merrit, sanctuary director. “He has a severe injury to his right leg, probably from going across the blacktop from where they hit him.”

Merrit said that the gosling is weak because of the blood loss and trauma he sustained.

“He’s not walking very well,” she said, “but nothing is broken, which is good.”

Merrit said the gosling will remain with them until he is old enough to fly, and he will be housed with eight other goslings and kept near two older geese to prevent him imprinting onto human beings.

“You don’t need to be an animal lover to see that this is awful,” said Hayes. “They shouldn’t have been run over just because someone was impatient.”

Police were not able to obtain a license plate number for either vehicle.