07/20/2026
You may have heard about the poor injured goose that lives in/around Mill Pond in our beautiful town of Newington.
Despite public outcry by many concerned citizens, numerous posts on social media, and countless calls to animal control from good samaritans, the goose was left suffering for over a week with ZERO response from Newington CT Animal Control. Multiple community members commented on the several posts about this goose and noted that the last time this had happened in Newington, the goose was left to "pass naturally". 🤬
Left to SUFFER.
The correct word is SUFFER.
What is the Newington Animal Control Officer doing?
Where is retired-cop-turned-ACO Arkadiusz (Eric) Petlik??
Missing in action, clearly.
What else is new??
The poor goose's legs were wrapped in tight fishing line that had cut through her skin so deep that it had caused major damage to her leg as well as infection.
Her condition was worsening by the day so a good samaritan who is an active duty Air Force retiree contacted Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University who has a Wildlife Rehab Center in North Grafton, Massachusetts. They said they'd take her but we'd have to capture her and transport her there. That call, while life-saving for the bird, took not even 10 minutes.
ACO Petlik has NO EXCUSE for not applying any effort to the animal crises in town which are multiplying by the day.
Early morning on Sunday, while the Extravaganza was being set up, a team of 4 good samaritans from town (with NO relevant training) were able to secure the goose safely and transport her to Tufts Wildlife Rehab Center without incident.
We're aware there is a second goose with similar fishing line/hook injuries at the same location. We tried to secure them both at the same time, as Tufts said they would take both, but unfortunately, the other one wouldn't come out of the water. Part of that was due to the fact that one of his legs has circulation cut off from the fishing lines because he's been trying to pull them off which has only tightened the tangles worse and caused deep wounds.
Poor guy is unable to swim with his leg on one side so he ends up going in circles. It's very sad 😞 and he needs help. We are planning to grab him soon. Please do not interfere.
We hope you're inspired by what a community can do when they come together to help animals in our community.
.. & ...
We hope you're fired up that we even have to this while simultaneously paying for the salary of the person who is supposed to be doing it.
Make it make sense.
Demand change!
