Posted on 04/27/2005 8:47:53 PM PDT by SmithL
SACRAMENTO - The Department of Social Services said Wednesday it was investigating a home for the elderly after state game officials raided it and removed a flock of maimed Canada geese.
The two agencies focused on Lakeside Villa in Loomis, a Sacramento suburb, after a neighbor reported that the owner was poaching geese. Investigators were looking into the possibility that residents of the home were fed meat or eggs from the wild birds that are illegal to possess, state game officials said.
"Eating goose is not necessarily a bad thing," said Patrick Foy, a biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game, who said it was only legal to hunt the birds in winter. "In this regard, this certainly isn't hunting. This is poaching defined."
Wildlife officials seized 22 disabled geese Tuesday and took them to a bird rehabilitation center in Fairfield. The birds were maimed, malnourished, and many had infections where their wings had been clipped to prevent them from flying away, Warden Mark Jeter said. One badly injured bird had to be killed.
The Department of Fish and Game planned to seek animal cruelty and other charges when it forwards its investigation to the Placer County district attorney's office, Foy said.
The Department of Social Services, which investigates health and safety violations, confirmed it was investigating the home, but would not reveal the nature of the investigation, said spokesman Andrew Roth.
The home has operated for at least three years under a license that allows it to care for six disabled people over the age of 60, Roth said.
In July, Jeter got a report from a neighbor that the owner of the home, Titus Bujdei, was trapping geese and possibly slaughtering them.
Jeter was initially skeptical.
"We get all kinds of stories and a lot of times they're overblown," he said.
But he said his investigation over months supported what the witness reported.
"I haven't seen anything like this," said Jeter, a warden for 13 years. "The wildlife all chopped up like that."
Bujdei told investigators he had bought the geese at an outdoor market and had never harmed them, Jeter said.
Bujdei did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment from The Associated Press.
He told the Auburn Journal that he didn't know it was illegal to keep the birds, that they were for the enjoyment of the home's residents and that an alleged trap was used for ducks he sells.
"We'd never eat them in my life, we never kill them," he told the newspaper.
The witness in the case said he saw Bujdei trap the birds and take them to a tree that served as a makeshift butcher block, Jeter said. At times, he would hear a thud, the geese would stop squawking and he'd never see them again. Other times after the chopping sound, the bird emerged with its wings clipped so it couldn't fly away.
"It would be like having your forearm cut off or your hand cut off," Jeter said.
Jeter said the tree and ground around it was stained with blood and covered in feathers. A hatchet and other evidence gathered at the site was sent to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lab in Oregon for DNA testing, he said.
While Jeter had occasionally set up surveillance at the home, he decided to move in after hearing a report that a goose was caught in a fishing net and had its wing snapped.
"When I heard about that I thought, 'That's gonna be enough of that,'" he said.
Well the folks said they wanted a Christmas goose........
Why are Canadian Geese protected? They're as common as crows, messy and foul-tempered. They should be eaten!
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