By Kristina Brehm

This Father’s Day weekend, my husband and I took our kids fishing at Idlewild lake – something we do quite often.

We set up on one of the docks and started casting.  Not long after we got there my son had to use the bathroom (of course), so I took him over to the washrooms.  On our way back to the dock we saw an adolescent goose laying by herself.

We cautiously approached her but didn’t get too close as we didn’t want to upset her.  Thinking it was odd that she was alone and didn’t move when we got close, I told my husband who went over to investigate further.

Upon a closer look he found the poor thing was wrapped in fishing line.  He was able to cut the line from her body but it was so tightly wrapped around both of her legs that he needed my help to hold her down so he could cut it free.

After almost an hour of trying to dig the line out of her legs, he was finally able to get it all off but she was not free of harm; the line was so tight that it cut her down to the bone.

Once we let her go she stumbled down to the water very clumsily and swam very slowly to the other side of the lake, drinking water the entire time.  We watched as she pulled herself up onto the beach to rest by herself.

We could see her family off in the distance and we hoped they would reunite.  My husband called the fish and wildlife services who then gave him a number to call – he called and left a message.  Knowing there was not much more we could do, we left hoping she would be ok.

We just want people to be aware of their impacts to the wildlife when they are spending time in their territory.  We found more fishing line all over the dock and my daughter caught a hook and line out of the water under the impression she had a fish on her hook.

We went back up to Idlewild last night (June 24) to see if we could spot our goose.  We found a group of geese sunning in their usual spot.  Once they caught wind of us, they hurried into the water; and there at the end of the group limping on one leg was our goose – we were certain.

We truly hope this was her and that this story had a happy ending, but had we not found her a few days earlier, I’m not sure it would have.

We just wanted to share our story to spread awareness to clean up any fishing line whether it’s yours or not.  Thanks!

Photos courtesy Kristina Brehm

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