CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A man in southeast Charlotte is on a mission to find a driver who killed several geese. He talked to Channel 9 with the hope that someone will see the story and come forward to police with information.
Todd Meadows said he was driving on Village Lake Drive in southeast Charlotte on Friday night around 7:30 when about 30 geese were trying to cross the road. Several drivers had stopped to let them pass, when all of a sudden the driver at the front of the line hit the gas.
"I'm assuming this person got tired of waiting, and they just decided that they wanted to run them down," Meadows said.
Meadows said he immediately pulled over to help the geese.
"These things were trying to get out of the street. The parents were squawking, the babies were hollering, and it was total chaos with these birds out here,” he said.
Four geese were killed. A fifth was injured and taken to a veterinarian.
"That takes a thoughtless person to run these animals over like that," Meadows said.
Meadows and some other witnesses gathered up the remains and put them in a plastic bag so Animal Control could pick them up.
On Monday, he brought flowers to the place where the geese were killed.
"I want people to see this flower when they come by here to remember that these animals lost their life,” he said. “They lost their lives over something so senseless and useless."
Geese are all over that area. There is even a "Geese Crossing" sign where the incident happened. There's a lake just up the street. When an Eyewitness News crew was there on Monday, it wasn't long before they saw many geese trying to cross the street.
One witness did call police after the geese were killed Friday night, but they weren't able to give them a good description of the car. Meadows said he only remembers that it looked like a teal color.
"I hope by people hearing this story that somebody can remember something. These animals definitely need some type of justice,” he said.
Animal Control said if enough witnesses come forward with information and police are able to track down the driver, that person could face felony animal cruelty charges.