Goose Whose Mate Was Hit By Car, Killed, Brought To New Home

PECONIC, NY — A North Fork goose saved after his mate was hit by a car and killed during an August storm has been brought safely to a new home in the Catskills.

According to John Di Leonardo, founder and executive director of Long Island Orchestrating for Nature, the pair of domesticated geese — who'd made themselves at home in the neighborhood — 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 arrived safely this week at 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."

During the height of the storm 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.

Ulli Stachl, who lives nearby, said she and her husband Randy were devastated. "I can't believe sweet Gracie got killed! We are heartbroken — they gave us so much joy throughout the pandemic. More than a year now they had been waddling next to each other, almost hand-in-hand, down Mill Lane, or foraging — always together —on the lawns around there. We named them George and Gracie, after George Burns and Gracie Allen, and really loved having them around."

She added: "People are just driving way too fast on Mill Lane. We often don't feel safe walking there ourselves. It makes me so angry. Poor babies."

Seeing the geese gave her happiness and peace during the difficult pandemic months, she said.

"It just makes me cry. We were looking forward to seeing them every day when we drove by. And if we didn't see them we would get worried until we saw them again. Now they really are gone."

Stachl said she believes George will never be happy again without his mate. "Good night and good-bye, sweet Gracie," she said.

She and other neighbors said they hope to lobby for speed bumps on Mill Lane. "People just go way too fast there," Stachl said.

Kara Graves, who also lives near Mill Lane, agreed. "We need to stop people from speeding to the Sound." Graves said she walks and runs daily and sees motorists driving 40 to 50 miles per hour. "A few simple speed bumps will solve the issue," she said.

The geese were large, she said, and easily visible, and someone even doing 30 miles per hour should have had ample time to stop.

"I am heartbroken over the goose but that could easily have been a child," she said.

Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said New York State highway law does not permit speed bumps to be placed in roadways for traffic calming unless they are part of a "designed road", usually new roads designed by engineers. The speed limit on Mill Lane is 30 miles per hour, he added, the lowest speed a town has the legal authority to set. If the town wanted to reduce it further, they would need to apply to New York State for permission, Russell said.

"I can understand people being upset. Unfortunately, some people are careless. Fox, box turtles, etc. get hit often. It is a shame and very upsetting. Changing speed limits, however, particularly when they are already the lowest they can be, will not make people more careful."

Graves said one portion of the road, near Mill Road and Sound Ave., is designated at 15 miles per hour, but people still speed.

Russell said if signs are yellow, that's not the established, legal limit of 30 miles per hour. "Those are 'recommended limits' only."

There are some streets where the speed limit is lower than 30; however, either the town sought, and was granted, the authority from New York State to reduce the limit on a specific road; or those are are private roads where owners established their own limits, the supervisor said. Finally, he said, the limits might have been set years ago by the town without state sanction.

Russell added that some that hit a bird or an animal do so simply by accident. "They are probably as upset as anyone and we need to keep that in mind. Narrow, winding roads do present visibility issues sometimes."

Di Leonardo also brought 50 Cornish Cross Rock chickens that fell off a slaughterhouse-bound truck in New York City, an abandoned guinea hen, and an abandoned rooster to the sanctuary.

Of the goose, Di Leondardo said: "They mate for life. He's still mourning but this new flock will help him get through it. He'll never forget her, but his new family will help him heal."