An injured Egyptian Goose that was put down has Vermont residents up in arms.
A resident who wishes to remain anonymous told Hermanus Times that as a bird lover she is concerned for the well-being of Vermont’s birdlife.
“I was very upset. I know the Egyptian Goose was shot by a pellet gun,” she said. “Vermont has such a variety of birdlife. If people are killing birds on purpose it would be sad.”
Another resident expressed her dissatisfaction on Facebook: “To the person who shot the Egyptian Goose with a pellet gun in the Onrus/Vermont area, for your interest, the goose was a girl; you shot the bone in her wing off and she suffered tremendously for three days before being put down by Cape Nature; her injury was irreparable; her goose mate is walking around calling for her; they mate for life and he will never have another mate or be able to reproduce.”
According to the Facebook user this self-evident thoughtless killing not only impacts nature, but also people, having costing the family who tried to save the goose money, time and tears to drive the animal around to experts and console their children who were devastated by its suffering.
According to the environmentalists Peter Hodgekins and Peter Viljoen killing of animals is taboo. They agree humans need to find a way to co-exist with nature.
“It is a sad situation,” Viljoen says. “We are destroying the environment and must learn to engage with nature in all its manifestations.” According to the Overstrand Municipality the Egyptian goose is least threatened – in other words it is not protected. “However, the act of shooting the animal will still fall under Cape Nature Ordinance as illegal hunting of a wild animal,” stated the municipality. At the time of going to press Cape Nature didn’t commend on this matter. In another case last week (16 June), two Overstrand baboons were noted as having injuries, one female in Betty’s Bay with an injured hand and a male in Pringle Bay with an injury to his left inner thigh. “The Betty’s Bay female was monitored closely, and she was moving and foraging with reasonable ease,” related Dean O’Neill, Municipal Manager. “A decision was taken not to bring in a vet at this stage. The adult male in Pringle Bay, seemed to be moving slowly and a vet was called to assess it. They assessed the movements of the animal, and it was found the male was alert, moving well and foraging. There was no bleeding from the wound, and the decision was taken only to monitor him for now.”
