(Added: August photo of the geese, courtesy of Myrtle)
10:22 AM: We’ve received two reports of this so far. First one was from Sig:
A man on a bike with his dog running loose at the south end of Lincoln Park at about 8:15 this morning allowed his dog to attack one of the beautiful white geese. The dog injured the goose on the land and took it out in the water all the way to the moored boats. No sign of the goose so hopefully he will show up. His partner is honking on the beach and very frightened. The man got on his bike as soon as he could get the dog to come back (still no leash in sight) and took off in a dark Subaru Outback with a bike rack on the back and top. Hopefully someone can watch for the injured goose and help him.
Second one came from a reader who didn’t want to be identified:
I just got back from a walk at Lincoln Park where some bozo’s dog – off leash – attacked the resident geese on the beach.
I arrived just after the event so my story comes second-hand from a Parks employee who witnessed this and told me what had happened.
Apparently the dog attacked the geese, leaving feathers all over the path, and then chased one of the birds through the water all the way to the ferry dock.
As I arrived the dog’s owner, who had walked south down the private part of the beach, about halfway to the ferry, coaxed the dog back to shore then high-tailed it out of the park on his mountain bike. (He was wearing a yellow and black biking shirt)
There were about 20 of us watching and looking for the goose. I continued my walk then returned to that area about 20 minutes later- but no goose..
I am sharing this because dogs are not allowed on public beaches (period) and there is no off-leash area in Lincoln Park yet I see dogs running free there almost every day. Each time I do I grumble to myself about it rather than confronting the owners. I know people love their dogs.
If you’re not familiar with the Lincoln Park/Fauntleroy area white geese – here’s a photo of one – they (or, perhaps, their relatives) have been on the beach there for years (we remember seeing them more than a decade ago). Their room to roam is curtailed right now, possibly forcing them further south, because of the Barton Pump Station Upgrade Project work that has taken over the pocket beach at Cove Park immediately north of the Fauntleroy ferry dock. We’ll be following up to see if we can find out what has happened since the search mentioned above; please let us know if you hear/see anything.
3:01 PM UPDATE: If you haven’t seen this in the comment thread yet: We checked with Parks, and they told us Animal Control was planning to visit the park to investigate – they had indeed received a call about this to dispatch earlier today. A commenter subsequently reported that both geese were found and seem to be OK, which was confirmed by a beach resident who has seen them.
ADDED: From Dewey Potter @ Parks: “One employee observed most of the incident, confronted the individual about his dog being off leash, and notified Seattle Animal Shelter. The Sr. Gardener who called me back said the description in the WS Blog of the dog owner is accurate. If anyone can provide a name, a license number, or other identifying information, SAS staff will talk with the dog owner and tell him what the penalties are for having a dog on the beach and for harassing wildlife.”
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