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Arrow falls from neck of wounded goose; rescue effort ends

Animal control officers attempted to capture a goose with an arrow lodged near its left shoulder at Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas. The arrow fell out when one of the officers tried to snare the wounded goose with a net. (Irfan Khan / L

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Rescuers tried once again Wednesday to capture a Canada goose that was impaled by an arrow roughly three weeks ago.

The animal control officers failed to nab the bird, but they did watch in amazement as the animal appeared to jettison the arrow and fly out of reach.

The rescue attempt — the latest in several over three weeks — began at about 7:30 a.m. when animal control officers lured the bird toward them with food. Then they tried to throw a net over the goose, but to no avail.

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“We weren’t able to capture it, but the arrow fell out,” said Don Barre, public information officer for the Los Angeles County Dept. of Animal Care and Control. “We’re happy that the arrow has fallen out. It’s the best possible outcome.”

The distressed fowl had been spotted Dec. 1 at Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas. The arrow had lodged in the bird’s shoulder and neck tissue at a 45-degree angle. The feathered part of the arrow extended down from the bird’s left side. The tipped portion protruded upward from the other side.

The wary goose had frustrated successive teams of would-be rescuers, who included county parks employees, volunteers, a local humane society and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

“We are glad to see that the goose is no longer suffering, and we believe that the goose will recover as animals in nature typically do,” said Marcia Mayeda, director of the county’s animal control department.

The arrow had made the goose easy to spot when it was in or near the 250-acre reservoir in the park. Now, its unwanted celebrity has ended; it is one fowl among a sizable resident flock.

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“We can’t identify which goose this is, now that it no longer has the arrow in it,” Barre said.

Authorities are still looking for leads on who shot the goose with the arrow.

It would be against the law to shoot a goose with a gun or a bow within a park or within city limits. The offense could be prosecuted as a hunting or firearm violation, said Andrew Hughan, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

howard.blume@latimes.com

@howardblume


UPDATES:

2:50 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Hughan.

2:30 p.m.: This article was updated with new details on the rescue attempt.

This article was originally published at 10:50 a.m.

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