A Sherwood Park man who was attacked by a goose while helping a gaggle of geese cross the road earlier this week admits he got a bit too close, but said he would do it again because it’s the “typical Canadian thing to do.”
“I was in law enforcement for 26 years and I think I had bar fights that were less violent than that,” Mike Derbyshire said with a laugh.
Derbyshire was driving home from golf on Tuesday afternoon when he came across two geese and their goslings attempting to cross Broadmoor Boulevard.
One gosling appeared to be struggling to get up on the median, so he decided to get out of his vehicle to give it a little boost. That’s when one of the birds’ parental instinct kicked it and he was attacked.
“It was either the mom or the dad that just attacked me, came at me honking and hissing and knocked me over a couple of times with their feet,” he explained.
“When that 20-pound goose came at me with her webbed feet and literally pushed me back with her two feet, it was a lot of force there.”
Salena Messal was driving with her husband in a vehicle just behind Derbyshire and the geese and caught the entire ordeal on camera.
“I thought that it was crazy and that you don’t see that every day so I whipped out my phone,” Messal said. “It was so crazy as I’ve never seen anything like this before.
“I hope he didn’t hurt himself but he seemed like he was enjoying the challenge of helping them. Perhaps the geese might have realized he was only trying to help. And it was awesome to see the little one having troubles finally make it over the curb by himself.”
Derbyshire said he’s an animal lover and didn’t want to see anything bad happen to the birds. He said he deserved what he got, and admitted he wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.
“You see it happen all the time and you just think it wouldn’t happen to you and it did,” he said. “I probably got a little too close and deserved it.”
Derbyshire said the geese and goslings made it across the road safely in the end.
As for his 15 minutes of social media fame? Derbyshire said if people are getting a good laugh at his expense, he’s OK with that.
“I’m glad people are laughing about it,” he said. “If it makes people laugh and makes people smile, at the end of the day, it’s all good.”
Watch below: He served in law enforcement for years, but a man who tried to help a gosling stuck near the road said the attack by the adult bird rivalled some security scuffles at bars!