The shooting of four domestic geese in Sheepscot on the morning of Christmas Eve has badly upset village residents.
Eyewitnesses say a hunter shot four domestic geese, killing three and maiming a fourth.
“These geese have been in our waters here for 30 years,” Kelly Brook said. “They’re tame.”
Brook lives in Sheepscot, where she writes the “All Four Feet” column for The Lincoln County News.
For 18 years, Sheepscot resident Daisy Radoulovitch fed the geese every day, Brook said. Today, a handful of neighbors share the responsibility.
The flock is “symbolic of our village,” Brook said. “They belong to our village.”
Artists frequently paint the historic village on the banks of the Sheepscot River, and the flock often features prominently in the results, Brook said.
“This is a very quiet community and everybody in it is an animal lover as far as I know,” Brook said. “If they hunt, they follow the law.”
Nancy Mocarski-Hartley, another Sheepscot resident, witnessed the shootings.
Mocarski-Hartley said she was sitting at her computer at about 10:30 a.m. when she saw a man “opening fire with a shotgun” at “very close range.”
Mocarski-Hartley reported the incident to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and the Maine Warden Service before confronting the hunter herself.
The man, accompanied by a young boy, denied any wrongdoing, she said. He said they were Canada geese and thus legal to hunt, a statement she adamantly denies.
Mocarski-Hartley relayed the man’s license plate number to the Maine Warden Service and later accompanied a warden while he collected evidence, she said.
Belva Ann Prycl lives across the Sheepscot River in Alna.
The geese are “beloved,” Prycl said. “We view them as residents of the village.” They’re “very tame” and “very approachable by humans,” including children, who sometimes feed the geese bread.
Prycl has a special relationship with one goose in particular.
The bird, who she calls Mr. Quack, came to her back porch some time ago. Prycl fed and talked to the friendly goose and eventually noticed it was favoring a discolored foot. She collected the animal in her poodle’s crate and found a veterinarian, who told her a car might have run over its foot.
The veterinarian removed the damaged tissue and the goose “recuperated for a month on our back porch” with antibiotics and fresh bandages supplied by Prycl.
Finally, Mr. Quack rejoined the other geese. “There was quite a bit of rejoicing among the flock when he appeared again,” Prycl said.
The geese “add a lot to our lives here,” she added.
Prycl called the Christmas Eve incident “appalling,” “horrific” and “inconceivable.” She didn’t directly witness the killing of the geese, but she heard the shots and immediately confronted the man.
Mr. Quack survived, for which Prycl is grateful, but the flock, once numbering 11, is down to a “traumatized” eight, including one with a “badly broken wing,” she said. “We’re just hoping that he will be able to survive.”
The killing of the geese has no relation to the sport of hunting, she said.
“It’s like going into someone’s pasture and shooting a cow,” Prycl said. “It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.”
“It was a very sad Christmas in Sheepscot, not just for us, but for everyone who loves these animals,” Prycl said.
The investigating officer, Game Warden Joe Lefebvre, did not return messages left by The Lincoln County News.
According to Maine law, “a person may not, while on a hunting trip or in the pursuit of wild animals or wild birds, intentionally, knowingly, recklessly or negligently shoot and wound or kill any domestic animal, including, but not limited to, a dog, car or domestic bird. A person who violates this section commits a Class E crime.”