Wildlife rescuers rush to save goose that turned out to be a cushion

By Isobel Williams

Wildlife rescuers rushed to a lake to save an "injured goose" that turned out to be a cushion.

Volunteers from the Greenwich Wildlife Network received a distressed call last week reporting a seriously injured Canada goose in Thamesmead, south-east London.

Rescuer Chris raced to the scene, fearing there had been a catapult attack - only to discover that the "goose" was actually a throw pillow.

The organization’s founder Rae Gellel, 34, says the team was relieved and had a good laugh over the incident, insisting that the cushion’s coloring was identical to the animal.

The wildlife lover from Greenwich said: “We got a report about a Canada goose floating in a lake in Thamesmead and that is an area that we are unfortunately attending all the time with animals being deliberately targeted with catapults.

“It was a really grim situation from the offset, so we sent our volunteer Chris, and once he got a little closer he realised it was actually a cushion floating in the lake.

“It went from a grim situation to a lighthearted one very quickly. We were all very relieved. It really looks like a Canada goose, the coloring is perfect from a distance.

“It is not ideal to send a volunteer to a cushion because they could be doing something else, but I would say we would rather check and be sure than risk an animal in distress going without help.”

Rae, who founded the charity in 2018 after noticing there were no rescuers locally, says incidents like this happen all the time, and recounted some of her favourite fake calls.

In one scenario, she received a call of a group of wood pigeons in Charlton Park which had been reported to be “splatted with blood”- but had actually just gorged on red berries.

She also got a call from a lady insisting there was a goat running around Eltham high street, which turned out to be a Jack Russell Terrier.

In a panicked incident, Rae finished work to a call of a baby pigeon on the train tracks with another train coming in five minutes, so she sprinted to the station only to find a wig.

Her favourite memory however, is a woman who insisted that she had a scorpion in her bag- which turned out to be a leaf.

Other notable rescues include a pink scarf mistaken for a parrot, a mophead believed to be a hedgehog, and a poo bag thought to be a crow on a fence.

Rae added: “It is a constant thing. When driving to a rescue we will often pull over in a panic because there is something in the road and it turns out to be a black sack or something.

“We have all done it. I rescued a wooly hat because I thought it was a crow. I stopped traffic and everything. We do it all the time thinking a black sack or a pile of leaves is an animal.

“It is always a relief because it means that an animal is not in harms way. We would rather people report things and get a laugh out of it than not report them.

“It is good to have a bit of levity in our line of work because it can be quite dark sometimes.”

The founder’s tips on how to avoid a false report are to take clear photos and videos, and stay with the animal if you can until someone arrives so it is easy for them to find.

But overall, Rae encourages people to keep reporting if they have any doubt, as they would rather arrive to a cushion than miss a real animal in trouble.

She said: “Obviously our resources are really limited and we are really overstretched especially in the summer so we can be pulling our hair out that we can’t cover everything.

“Sometimes it is frustrating because we can see from the picture it is not what they say, but we still have to go physically look to put the persons mind at ease.

“But, overall, we have a good sense of humor about it, it is nobody’s fault and it is unavoidable. We just try and see the positives in it.”