Alberta Fish and Wildlife is investigating the deaths of two geese at the Sandpiper Golf & Country Club on Thursday.
The club issued a statement apologizing for the deaths after a post about the incident was shared widely on social media. The club said two geese were run over by the course superintendent as he tried to herd them toward a pond.
"We have many geese on our course and we have always herded them off the course towards our ponds to keep them off the course," the golf club stated.
"We have never had an issue in the past and the geese have always ran to the pond, today two of the geese swerved away from the pond and were run over."
The club said the superintendent reached out to Fish and Wildlife to report himself and the incident.
Later on Thursday, the golf course issued another statement on social media, saying they are “deeply disappointed” in the incident that took place.
“We do not condone this behaviour in any way,” the post read.
“The Fish and Wildlife officers have come to investigate the situation and will be holding the individual responsible for their actions. We assure you that we are taking this incident very seriously and an internal review is underway,” the post read.
Lisa Glover, senior communications adviser for Justice and Solicitor General, confirmed in an email there is an investigation into the incident.
"As the investigation is ongoing we are not able to provide further information at this time," Glover said."In general, it is an offence to harass, kill or injure migratory birds under both provincial (the Wildlife Act) and federal legislation (the Migratory Game Birds Act), and can result in a fine, jail time, or both, for adults."
Kevin Easthope, general manager at the Sandpiper Golf and Country Club, confirmed Fish and Wildlife came out to the golf course and did an investigation into the incident.
“We are doing an internal interview on our side with the individual. It's been a pretty trying couple days.”
“It’s pretty unfortunate that Sandpiper is taking a beating over this because it’s one individual's actions or accident and everybody is kind of on Sandpiper about it,” Easthope said.
Brad Anderson, who says he witnessed the incident, shared his story on Facebook in a post that racked up hundreds of comments and shares. Anderson included photos of the aftermath, where the bodies of the geese can be seen on the green.
Anderson said witnessing the incident was “disgusting” and said both him and his playing partner were in disbelief watching the incident unfold.
The golfer said they were driving up the 15th fairway at the golf course when they saw the superintendent drive through a flock of geese at full speed.
“(He) made no attempts to slow down or anything like that and we watched him run over the first one and then he ran over another one,” Anderson said, claiming that he went out of his way to drive through the flock of geese.
Anderson said the geese were probably hit several seconds apart. The second goose was dragged under the golf cart for what Anderson said was 15 or 20 yards down the fairway.
The golfer said the superintendent didn’t stop but continued driving the cart up to some other grounds crew.
Anderson wrote on Facebook that after the incident he spoke with the manager and he was “made to feel like this was no big deal and that nothing would be done about it.”
Anderson said that he understands that geese are a nuisance but there are better ways of dealing with them.
“This isn’t okay,” Anderson said.
“They’re still a living, breathing creature and to run them down with a golf cart and not think anything of it, it's just not acceptable.”
