A man walking in an East Bay park claims that a gaggle of geese executed a coordinated attack on him Wednesday, sending him tumbling to the ground and leaving him injured.
According to ABC 7, Walnut Creek resident A.J. Buttacavoli was out for a stroll in the city's Heather Farm Park Wednesday when "he was confronted by three geese in a coordinated attack."
In a Facebook post published Thursday evening, ABC reporter Wayne Freedman writes that Buttacavoli "was minding his own business when the geese began walking parallel with him, and then closed in."
"You say you were attacked by?"
"Three geese," he said.
"All at once?"
"Yes."
"Coordinated?"
"Yes."
Buttacavoli fell, he says, injuring his left leg, leaving him with a pronounced limp. "They look very benign," he said of the geese. "But they're not. They're vicious."
When asked for a description of the suspects, Buttacavoli told ABC 7 that they "looked like any geese you see...long neck, full body, grayish, brownish, whiteish."
According to Buttacavoli, this is his first animal attack, even though "I am from New York," a city known for its copious wildlife. But perhaps it's Buttacavoli's urban origins that hold the key to his alleged assault? Gayle Vassar, Walnut Creek's Manager of Communications and Outreach, tells ABC that the park's Canada Geese "are in their molting period which means they are getting ready to breed," making the nasty temper familiar to anyone who's ever dealt with a goose even nastier.
But just because the oft unpleasant nature of the Canada goose is common knowledge does not mean Buttacavoli believes we should just accept things as they are. "This is a serious matter," Freedman quotes Buttacavoli as saying.
"These animals are dangerous and [we] should be concerned."
