A Canada goose that was tangled in fishing line and had a barbed hook embedded in its neck has been treated and released back to Mill Lake in Abbotsford.
Elizabeth Melnick of Elizabeth’s Wildlife Centre said she first started receiving calls about the bird on Wednesday (July 20). But because the goose was in the middle of the lake at the time, she couldn’t do anything to help it.
“The closer you get, the faster they move away,” she said.
On Thursday, a woman brought the bird to the centre. Melnick said she is not sure how she was able to catch it, but it must have wandered onto shore.
RELATED: Avian flu confirmed in some Canada geese at Mill Lake in Abbotsford
Melnick said the fishing line was wrapped around the bird’s legs, and she didn’t have suitable wire cutters to remove the three-pronged (treble) hook.
She transported the bird to Coastal Rivers Pet Hospital in Abbotsford, and the hook was removed there.
“Once everything was off, the goose was walking just fine, and (Friday) morning it was talking in the trailer and wanted to get out,” Melnick said.
She said the bird was starving and consumed a large amount of goose pellets. She then drove it to Mill Lake on Friday, where it happily waddled into the water and swam away as if nothing had occurred.
Melnick said not every bird in the same predicament has the same happy outcome. She said sometimes the fishing line is so embedded that a bird’s legs cannot be saved, and the creature has to be euthanized.
Melnick urges people who fish at Mill Lake to clean up after themselves as best they can.
“It’s an ongoing problem,” she said of birds being caught up in fishing line.
vhopes@abbynews.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter