A team of four volunteers, eight firefighters, and one animal control officer, along with an Evansville veterinarian and his staff were on a wild goose chase recently — no, it's not the setup to a joke, it's a real story that wound up having a happy ending.

The Garvin Foundation is a new non-profit created by the Pike family of Evansville earlier this month. The mission of the organization is to protect the numerous geese and other animals who call Garvin Park home. The inspiration for which came from the aforementioned "wild goose chase" captured on video below and posted on the group's Facebook page recently. In the video you can see a goose they've named "Houdini" struggling to stay above water. Upon further investigation, a team of volunteers from the organization discovered Houdini, a federally protected Canada goose, had fishing line wrapped around one of its legs, and the more it struggled to free itself, the deeper the line cut into it's leg. Fearing the goose would continue injure itself further, team members alerted the Fire Department who performed a water rescue and took the bird to an east side vet's office.

This isn't the only time Foundation members have discovered an injured goose in the park. The group's website notes another instance where they initially believed a goose was caught up in fishing line only to find out it had metal poisoning, a concussion, and severely bruised organs from an unknown source. Unfortunately, that bird's (which they named, "Garvin") journey didn't end like Houdini's and it passed away a couple of week's later as a result of those injuries.

While the Foundation is still in the process of establishing its non-profit status, they are accepting monetary donations through a GoFundMe account that will be used for food and care of injured animals they discover.

For more information on the Foundation, including the type of food you can feed geese (NOT BREAD!), and how you can become a member, visit their official website at thegarvinfoundation.org.


 

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