‘Vile acts’: Teen, 17, accused of mowing down geese in parking lots

Police have arrested a 17-year-old boy accused of using his vehicle to kill four Canada geese and injure another in three separate incidents on Saturday night.

Winnipeg Police Service investigators believe the teen, while driving a white 2024 Subaru Solterra, intentionally ran over five geese in three different south Winnipeg parking lots in short succession, said police spokesman Const. Claude Chancy.

“It’s not good to see,” Chancy said of the unusual animal cruelty case. “You can understand how people are angered by such vile acts.”

In the first incident, a sleeping goose was run over and injured shortly before 10 p.m. in a parking lot on Henlow Bay, off Scurfield Boulevard. Chancy said he did not know what happened to the goose after it was injured.

Minutes later, at about 10 p.m., two sleeping geese were driven over and killed in a separate parking lot on Henlow.

About 15 minutes later, the teen chased two geese from their nests in the Ikea parking lot on Sterling Lyon Parkway, before running them over, police said.

Both of those geese were killed.

“That’s very intentional,” said Chancy. “He was out of the vehicle, chased the geese out of a nest, and then (got) back into his vehicle to run them over.”

“You can understand how people are angered by such vile acts.”

He said someone in the area who witnessed the incidents on Henlow Bay reported them to police.

Officers later identified the vehicle and determined the teen was driving it at the time, police said.

The boy, who was arrested at his home on Monday, is facing five counts of killing or injuring animals. He was released on an appearance notice ahead of a court date.

Zoe Nakata, the executive director of the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre in Île des Chênes, said staff who care for injured animals at the non-profit were saddened to learn of the case.

“We value the life and welfare of wild animals… They contribute to healthy ecosystems and they’re important to biodiversity, so we’re very discouraged to hear that an individual would actively cause harm,” said Nakata. “It was just quite disheartening, heartbreaking, really.”

Police briefed Manitoba Conservation officials about the incidents, as Canada geese are protected under law. The teen could face fines under the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act, which dictates that unlawfully killing a migratory bird or attempting to do so constitutes an offence.

Conservation officers are investigating the incidents, said a provincial government spokesman, but as of Tuesday, the teen hadn’t been charged with any wildlife offences.

Nakata said conservation officers had alerted staff at the wildlife centre on Monday and asked them to pass along any tips on the incidents they got from the public.

The non-profit is currently caring for several injured geese, including some that came from the area of the city where the incidents occurred.

She said it’s “impossible to say” if the injured goose from Henlow Bay was now in the organization’s care.

“We just don’t know,” she said.

Nakata said it’s not uncommon for drivers to mistakenly injure geese in accidents, but “when it’s done on purpose, or allegedly on purpose, it’s a whole other problem.”

The arrest this week is not the first time a Winnipeg resident has gotten in trouble for an incident involving geese.

Last summer, a woman now in her early 20s was fined $300 by a provincial court judge after she admitted to “harassing” a nesting goose, an offence under the federal act.

The woman was trying to visit a friend at a Henderson Highway apartment in May 2024 when a nesting goose blocked her car’s path, court heard last July.

The woman threw a bottle of leather cleaner and a pylon at the bird in an effort to chase it away.

An area resident recorded the incident on her cellphone and forwarded it to provincial conservation officers, who investigated and laid an offence notice.

The woman in that incident told court she was just trying to scare the nationally protected bird away, rather than harm it.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca