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WARNING: This story contains descriptions of animal cruelty.
A 17-year-old faces animal cruelty charges after he allegedly drove over several sleeping geese in three Winnipeg parking lots, killing most of them.
Police say the teen, driving an SUV, ran over the geese during a half-hour spree in south Winnipeg on Saturday night.
A sleeping goose was left injured after it was run over in a parking lot on Henlow Bay, in the West Fort Garry Industrial Park, shortly before 10 p.m., Winnipeg police said in a Tuesday news release.
A few minutes later, two sleeping geese were run over and killed in an adjacent Henlow Bay lot.
Two more were killed at 10:17 p.m., when they were chased from their nest and run over in a strip mall parking lot next to Ikea on Sterling Lyon Parkway, in the Seasons of Tuxedo shopping district, police said.
Security video shot by a business at the strip mall, which has been verified by CBC News, shows an SUV running over Canada geese in the mall’s parking lot.
WATCH | Footage shows SUV driving over Canada geese (WARNING: disturbing footage):
Security video shows SUV driving over geese
Security footage verified by CBC News shows an SUV running over Canada geese in a strip mall parking lot next to Sterling Lyon Parkway in Winnipeg on April 25. WARNING: Video contains graphic images.
Officers identified the SUV through security footage and arrested the teen at his home on Monday. He faces five charges of killing or injuring animals.
He was released from custody with a court date, but the investigation is continuing, police said.
‘It’s a serious thing’: lawyer
Canada geese are protected birds. It is illegal to kill the geese, or to harm or disturb them, their nests or eggs, without a federal permit.
They are also classified as game birds and can be hunted during designated seasons.
“All animals should be respected, but these animals have a specific legal backup,” said Victoria Shroff, a Vancouver-based lawyer who specializes in animal law. “It’s a serious thing. It’s a crime.”
Shroff said the legal protections safeguarding the migratory birds have been in place for more than 100 years in Canada.
There has been a shift away from the idea that animals are only property, said Shroff, but she thinks more needs to be done to educate Canadians about that fact — particularly young people.
“We need to think of animals and how we can coexist, rather than how we can get animals to move out of our way, or think about them as an inconvenience or nuisance or a hazard,” Shroff said.
“We’re not talking about damage to a toaster or … some inanimate object. We’re talking about damage to a sentient being who can feel pain.”
WATCH | Teen faces charges after geese driven over, killed:
Teen faces charges after geese driven over, killed
A 17-year-old is facing animal cruelty charges after he allegedly drove a vehicle over several sleeping geese in Winnipeg parking lots, killing most of them.
