1 Goose Dies After Being Hit By Car In Storm, Other Rescued

PECONIC, NY — A North Fork community was heartbroken when one of a pair of well-loved abandoned, domesticated geese who'd made themselves at home in the neighborhood died after being hit by a car in Sunday's storm.

According to John Di Leonardo, founder and executive director of Long Island Orchestrating for Nature, the pair of domesticated geese was abandoned in Peconic. After one was hit by a car, a valiant effort was made to save her at a local vet but the injuries were too severe and she was euthanized.

Di Leonardo rescued the goose's mate, a male; he will be taken to the And-Hof sanctuary in the Catskills.

Di Leonardo said the person who hit the goose never stopped.

Neighbors, he said, had been concerned about the pair for some time; they had been roaming around the Mill Road area, which is near a pond.

Resident Jeannie Sweet Bartos said the Toulouse geese, a domestic breed, first appeared in Peconic during the winter months. The geese, which mate for life, settled on three homes in the area, Bartos', her next-door neighbor's house, and the property across the road. "They were cute — entertaining and very sweet, very docile," she said. "They would sleep on my property and use my side yard as a runway." She laughed, explaining that the geese would run to the bulkhead and take off, flying to Goldsmith Inlet and paddling back.

Because they were domesticated, swans tried to attack them, she said. When the pair started to molt in June, they were unable to fly and stayed close to the Peconic homes, where neighbors were happy to see them; Sweet Bartos left them water and they ate a lot of grass. "Everyone got very attached."

On Sunday, during the height of Henri, things took a dark turn, Sweet Bartos said. A car came and hit one of the geese who was crossing the road, leaving its mate bewildered.

"It was heartbreaking," she said, her voice breaking with tears. "The other goose was honking as if to say, 'Where are you? Come back to me.'" The geese had honked for one another before, when one was out on the pond, she said.

She added: "The thing I never wanted to happen, happened. It was terrible."

Sweet Bartos said she had a message to share: Drivers should slow down while traversing area roads. Also, she said, people with domesticated animals should think twice before abandoning them in residential neighborhoods, "without thinking of the repercussions. These animals are defenseless."

They are unable to fend off attacks from other predators, Sweet Bartos said. "There are alternatives to just dumping them," she said.

On Monday, the community was saddened, Sweet Bartos said. "Everyone is upset."