On August 15, a concerned hobby farmer in Wayne County, NY contacted New York State Environmental Conservation Officer (ECO) John Rich and explained that he was in possession of a dozen wild Canada geese mistakenly purchased as goslings, thinking they were domestic geese. The geese later became aggressive to the farmer’s established chicken, duck, and goose flock, injuring some of them.
Officer Rich responded to the location in Red Creek, in the town of Wolcott, Wayne County, and confirmed the geese were wild Canada geese. The resident said he had purchased the geese from a farm in the town of Rose where he had previously purchased farm animals.
ECO Rich visited the farm in Rose and spoke to a woman who recounted her 19-year-old son selling some geese a few months earlier. The son admitted he found some baby Canada geese near his private pond and chased them down with a net until he collected 12 of them.
He then sold them to the hobby farmer advertised as domestic farm geese. Officer Rich charged the seller with illegally taking migratory birds.
The wild geese were released on the farm and are reportedly now eating a natural diet instead of commercial feed.
Read more about Canada geese in New York State.
Photo: Wild Canada geese illegally offered for sale in Wayne County (DEC photo).
JEEZE, some people are unbelievably STUPID. Or crooked.
Or both.
And MEAN – goslings are so strongly bonded to their parents, this was just cruel to take them away and sell them. Glad they were released in a natural environment for them.
That jerk should get a fine or something.