Local Nature Writer Critical Of The Destruction Of A Wounded Goose

By Andrew Gorosko

A Huntingtown Road man says he is upset that the town’s response to his call to help a wounded Canada goose resulted in the goose being destroyed, instead of being examined by a veterinarian.

But town police and an official of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) law enforcement unit are supporting the decision to destroy the injured wild animal.

Robert Winkler of 105 Huntingtown Road said Monday that on finding a wounded Canada goose in his yard on the morning of November 30, he contacted the town’s animal control officer for help in dealing with the injured waterfowl. An arrow was lodged in the torso of the goose, having entered the bird near its rump. The arrow’s shaft, minus the arrowhead, extended outward from the bird’s front torso, Mr Winkler said.

“I wanted to help this bird. This bird apparently could fly,” he said.

 Mr Winkler is a nature writer, specializing in birds, having studied birds for the past 25 years. A former Weston resident who originally lived in New York City, Mr Winkler said he moved to Newtown five years ago for its rural quality.

“I’ve helped a lot of birds,” he said, noting that the injured goose was grazing in his yard, near a pond, among other geese.

Mr Winkler said that animal control officer George Mattegat had told him on the telephone he would come to the Huntingtown Road property soon.

While waiting for help to arrive, Mr Winkler went out into the yard and fed the wounded goose cracked corn, which the goose ate, he said.

Mr Winkler said he had considered throwing a blanket over the goose to immobilize it, so that a veterinarian could examine it. But considering that he was alone, he thought the maneuver would be too risky, so he waited for Mr Mattegat to arrive, he said.

“I’m looking at the bird and it looks bright-eyed and alert,” Mr Winkler said, noting, though, that it walked with a limp. “The bird was preening, looking fine,” he said.

It took a very long time for Mr Mattegat to arrive, possibly 90 minutes or more, Mr Winkler said.

As the clock ticked away, Mr Winkler, realizing that he had to be on his way to work soon, decided to take a shower.

Arrival

While inside his home, “I heard this incredible blast,” he said.

On seeing Mr Mattegat near the pond, “I yelled, ‘What have you done?’ He [Mr Mattegat] said, ‘I shot the goose,’” Mr Winkler said.

Mr Mattegat had used a shotgun to kill the goose.

Mr Winkler said Mr Mattegat had told him that he had knocked at his door but had gotten no response.

“In the minute I was unavailable, he decided to blow it [the goose] away,” Mr Winkler said.

Mr Winkler said he told Mr Mattegat the goose could have been taken to a veterinarian to be examined and have its prospects for survival evaluated.

Mr Mattegat told Mr Winkler that because the goose did not flee when he had approached it, it was severely injured and could not fly, according to Mr Winkler.

 “He just didn’t get it, one bit,” Mr Winkler said.

“This bird could have been helped,” he continued. “Sometimes we have to help animals.”

“I called these people for help and they killed it,” he said, noting, “This goose was not suffering until he shot it.”

“If we took it to a veterinarian and he said it had to be euthanized – fine,” Mr Winkler said, acknowledging that if a veterinarian had decided that the animal was beyond help, it would have been proper to destroy it.

 “It was an act of cruelty… bad judgment,” Mr Winkler said. “I was very, very angry.”

“I wanted to help this bird and I wound up in being an instrument in getting it killed,” he said. “The whole thing was a horrible, shocking tragedy.”

“He [Mr Mattegat] committed what I view as a crime against nature,” Mr Winkler said. “I feel he was wrong… He made a mistake. It didn’t have to happen.”

 Following the incident, Mr Winkler contacted Detective Sergeant Henry Stormer, who, as the head of the police department detective bureau, conducts internal investigations of complaints against police department employees. The town’s animal control unit is attached to the police department. Sgt Stormer investigated the incident. Although he wears a uniform similar to that of a police officer, Mr Mattegat is not a police officer.

Mattegat Responds

“It couldn’t be saved,” said Mr Mattegat on Tuesday this week.

He said that between 10 and 15 minutes elapsed between the time he had knocked on Mr Winkler’s door and the time he shot the goose.

Mr Mattegat said it had taken him some time to get to Huntingtown Road to respond to Mr Winkler’s call because he had other calls to handle before going there.

Had the arrow traveled through the goose’s wing, leg, or breast, it might have been saved, but the projectile had traveled through the goose’s intestines, and the bird could not be saved, Mr Mattegat said.

Mr Mattegat said he found a dual-bladed hunting arrowhead within the goose. The arrow had four tail feathers, indicating that a novice, not an experienced hunter, had shot the arrow at the bird, he said.

Mr Mattegat said an arrow was sticking into the goose, but he added that the arrow was not extending out the other side of the bird.

In the past, when he thought that wounded wild animals could be saved, such as deer and birds, he had brought them to a veterinarian to have them examined, Mr Mattegat said.

Last year, he had brought a wounded fawn from the woods to a local veterinarian to have it examined, only to learn it could not be saved, he said.

Besides the wounded wild animals that he occasionally brings to veterinarians to be checked out, Mr Mattegat said he routinely brings dogs injured in motor vehicle accidents to be checked by veterinarians.

“I, personally, don’t see I did anything wrong,” Mr Mattegat said of his decision to destroy the wounded goose. “I thought it had to be shot. It was suffering,” he said.

There is no point in taking a wounded bird with intestinal damage to a veterinarian, he said.

Acting Police Chief Michael Kehoe said Mr Mattegat acted properly in destroying the goose.

“He humanely destroyed the animal,” Acting Chief Kehoe said. On arriving at the Huntingtown Road property, Mr Mattegat attempted to locate Mr Winkler but could not, the acting chief noted. “We have… leeway when it comes to humanely euthanizing wild animals. And we have to use judgment,” he said.

Mr Mattegat has much experience in dealing with such situations, Acting Chief Kehoe added. “We don’t like to lose a Canada goose. Sometimes it has to happen, unfortunately. Sometimes you have to make tough decisions.”

Sgt Stormer said that on checking with the DEP’s law enforcement unit after the incident, he learned that Mr Mattegat’s destroying the goose is what a DEP conservation officer would have done under similar circumstances.

Captain Eric Nelson of the DEP law enforcement unit said that on November 30, the day the injured goose was found, it was open hunting season on Canada geese in Newtown. Because shooting Canada geese with bow-and-arrow is not specifically prohibited in applicable hunting regulations, it is thus allowed, he said.

On encountering a wild animal wounded and in distress, as the goose was, a DEP conservation officer would normally destroy that animal, Capt Nelson said.

“Our normal procedure would be to euthanize” using a shotgun or other weapon, he said.

Of Mr Mattegat’s shooting the goose, Capt Nelson said, “It sounds like he’s trying to do his job.”

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