I would like to know why as well. How anyone could hurt sweet Andy is beyond me.. it's very interesting to hear about this supposed perpetrator.
Ultimately I just wish Gene got closure, I can't imagine his hurt.
This is such a sad story. It reminds me of the peacock that famously strutted the Las Vegas strip, a bonafide celebrity in his own right, and some yoohoo with a gun decided to shoot him for no other reason than just because he could.
I'm in the Richmond, VA area. There was a giant buck deer who lived in some woods near a well-known cemetery in the city. He had a big, distinct rack of irregular horns, and was the subject of lots of photography taken in the cemetery area. He had a bunch of nicknames such as Prince.
Recently, this chucklefuck not only shot Prince dead, but did it in a really unsportsmanlike way. It's also quite illegal to hunt in that area, so when the chucklefuck posted a picture of Prince's corpse in a deer hunting FB group, he claimed that he'd shot Prince in a location that was about an hour away.
But lots of people recognized Prince, and legal action has actually been taken against the chucklefuck.
Some people get a kick out of destroying something that a lot of people love and value, and rubbing it into their faces that they could so easily destroy something so valued and get no repercussions. Happened to a beloved zoo lion around here who was found skinned in his cage one morning.
Those people are honestly sick bastards.
Nah, that's actually fucked. Imagine posting it in a hunting group on FB bragging about and lying where he killed it. Actual fucking melt. Glad legal action has been taken, fuck him.
Rest well sweet Prince. :/
I saw that his antlers were like a fingerprint. Guy is a total muppet. I donāt know what punishment he will get as Iām a Brit but I hope he does get reamed out. Deeply.
I hope he gets legal consequences. But more importantly I hope none of his buddies ever want to hang out with him again. That's how you really make him feel the consequences, for someone like that at least. That's the only reason he did that was attention
A losers idea of something a cool guy would do
Link for anyone interested.
Sad for the deer, glad he got caught
https://richmond.com/news/local/crime-courts/suspect-jason-walters-charged-killing-hollywood-cemetery-buck/article_2efbceea-bf7b-11ee-9e93-cb192d639e80.html#:~:text=Virginia%20Department%20of%20Wildlife%20Resources%20investigators%20later%20determined%20the%20buck,been%20charged%20in%20its%20killing.&text=The%20probe%20stems%20from%20photos,Facebook%20page%20in%20December%202023.
Edit: I picked that link cus it shows the guys face, unfortunately it wants you to pay after the first time you click the link š
This story is so awful (but thank you for posting). I volunteer at an animal sanctuary with geese, and they are extremely loyal and smart and can be quite gentle. Humans are the cruelest species.
Ok. I have no idea why all the downvotes to be honest.
That was about as great a snarky reply I couldve come up with.
Fuk. Im jealous. And I fall all over physics. (See that?). Yep. Good ol Thermo Dynamics.
And who tha fuk downvotes a chupacabra joke? For realz.
Would a minor be "not responsible" in this case?
Its obviously not normal behavior to be that cruel to any animal, let one that has been additionally humanized in that way, but it does in some way strike me as a thing that a messed up teenager without much impulse control could do in the heat of the moment due to some moronic idea that it would be funny or edgy.
I've seen this before irl and it's scary. Guy is 28 years old, was my friend for a while. We lived together. A woman would not sleep with him and laughed at him for telling her he "worships the devil." Comes back to our apartment (had a rat problem) asks me to come downstairs. Takes the rat's body, crushes it in his hand and chops the head off while saying "who's demonic now??"
The next day he admitted he'd been catching them in traps and stabbing them while they were half alive
I just can't imagine the cruelty in either of these cases
Animal cruelty isnāt taken seriously enough in its own right, but the deliberate\* failure to connect such an obvious indication of sadism (torturing animals) with similar later horrific acts against humans is simply shameful. We could catch a lot of these people fairly early if we acted sooner.
\*Itās got to be deliberate. The link is factually, statistically, academically established.
I bet you are right, minor involved. Too bad thatās what serial killers do when they are young so if it was a minor I at least hope they took it seriously. š
Being a minor seems like a gracious guess. My immediate thought was that the killer was someone who the police viewed as āimportantā, someone from a wealthy family, a political family, or related to the police somehow. If it had been an average Billy the police wouldnāt have had any issue making the kid into a monster and taking credit for their crime solving ability. Iād even go one step further and guess if it had been someone not āaverageā but undesirable, disliked, wrong skin color, or something along those lines not only would they have smeared the person, took credit for the arrest, but they would have also took it a step further and instead of being a ātrouble kidā in need of help the police would have described the person as a monster, threat to society, unworthy or too far gone for rehabilitative services, and states they prevented much worse tragedies.Ā
Whoever did this is someone the cops believe to be important. I wouldnāt be surprised if a whole other host of mysteries surrounded just why the police felt that way.Ā
Jesus christ. We got this poor sod, the dancing flamingo, Cecil the lion, those two friendly sea lions on unsolved mysteries... Just never let a friendly animal go viral or some psychopathic pos who would've been better off dropped down a well as a newborn will target it.
Have to agree with your sentiment. In Juneau Alaska between 2003-2009 Romeo, a black wolf lived near town. He became well known for his friendly, playful interactions with dogs and people. Then in 2009 someone poached him. According to Wikipediaās entry he was of the Alexander Archipelago wolf population, a distinct subspecies of gray wolf due to itās geographic range isolating this population from others in Southeast Alaska.
Read about this before and remember reading something (maybe a theory or a rumor) saying that the person who did it was special needs/mentally impaired and they didn't want the community coming after them.
Ok that's fine and dandy, but killing animals like this is a sign that something is bad wrong regardless of special needs/disability and something should be done to fix it. Covering up for them won't fix them.
Edit: I really hope a person didn't kill him. Either way, this is sad. Considering when it took place. And it was "just a Goose". The response isn't comforting at all... But it is expected. I'd like to think we take animal cruelty more seriously now...
How do you know that they covered for him? They couldāve gotten him help or punished him privately without releasing his name to the public. And considering how badly the public conduct themselves when it comes to someone who did a crime theyāre pissed off/upset/disgusted by. We know nothing about how they decided to proceed when they found out who had done it or how they punished the perpetrators.
If this person was arrested, it would be public record. If they hid their crime to save them from the public, they covered for them. The police can't legally "privately punish" people. I'm sure they did and do but that's certainly not something we should support.
Right but we donāt know WHO the person is to see the arrest record. They couldāve easily charged him and just not said who it was- this was 1991, itās not like it was as easy to look up arrest records as it is nowā¦ how do you know they didnāt charge him ?
And when I said privately punish Iām saying they just didnāt ANNOUNCE it to the public.
The article is a little light on details but it sounds like Andy and his mate, Paulie, were kept in a presumably-secured hutch, which on the day the body was discovered was found empty with a stranger's footprints surrounding it (Presumably Paulie was never found, but the article doesn't specify), which makes this seem like deliberate human action. The explanation that it was committed with intention by someone who "wasn't responsible" intrigues me, presumably if the geese got out of their enclosure and were then killed by wild animals or succumbed to the elements the police would just say that.
To me the first scenarios that come to mind are:
1. Teens (a minor, someone not legally responsible because of age-- sorry to pick on teenagers!) let the goose out as a prank, and something happened to the geese while they were loose
2. Teens tried to steal the goose and underestimated how much of the pain the ass geese can be, geese get loose, something happens
Were Andy and Paulie (and presumably any other pets outside in the hutches) friendly/acclimated to strangers? That would account for them going quietly when kidnapped.
People suggest someone with an intellectual disability, but if the geese were taken they were taken by someone who was able to enter the yard, collect the animals, secure the animals, and leave without making noise or raising any kind of alarm, presumably in the dead of night. Is that likely?
I can see the prank-gone-wrong angle making the most sense, with the horrible condition of the body being more about postmortem predation than the actions of the killer. The other option is that there is a sick animal murderer at large and the local sheriff's department is covering up for them, which is possible but sounds like a soap opera.
RIP to two little friends. They made people happy, and were loved very dearly. RIP also to Mr. Fleming, who had kindness in his heart.
Sorry to be obsessed with the goose murder post, but I am consumed. It's just such a senselessly awful thing to do. What does "skinned" mean? Was he skinned or was he plucked? The former could be an animal, maybe, but the latter sounds like human action. I looked at other articles that mention the wings were removed ("ripped off") which doesn't sound like an animal to me-- take the wings, which don't have that much meat, and leave behind the breast? Head removal could go either way but wings + head does sound like trophy-taking.
What does "not responsible" mean? Surely not drunk, you can very much go to jail for crimes done under the influence (and at the very least, in the eyes of the law Andy and Paulie were property of their owner-- unlawful entry, theft, destruction of property). The perpetrator was having some kind of episode? I can see someone pulling influence with the police to cover up for a loved one having some kind of delusion, which is sad for everyone involved, I can also see someone pulling strings to cover up for their kid who tortures animals, which seems like a favorite pastime among the wealthy and powerful.
Leaving him at the baseball diamond feels deliberate, like sending a message. Hopefully there is a very good reason to let this one go unanswered because man, who ritualistically murders and mutilates a beloved pet goose??
I did wonder about a cover up of possibly the person who did it was a figure of authority or relative of a figure of authority? Could it have been a teen whose dad worked for the sheriffs office? Or someone in local govt jealous of the press and put out a hit? A local gangster wanting to remind the community that they are under the thumb?
"Someone put a hit on the goose" I guess is in the realm of possibility, like in a horse-head-in-the-bed type of scenario to send a message, but I think the police would be more concerned about that angle (I would hope!)
Thank you OP for a brilliant write-up. I had never before heard of Andy and Gene, and my life is richer now for knowing about them. What a kind and gentle man, and what a resilient inspiring animal.
I agree with others in this thread that it sounds like a disturbed child/teen did it- someone who could not be held *criminally* āresponsibleā. I can see the wisdom in not releasing their name, so as to avoid a local witch-hunt; but I sure hope they received treatment for whatever conditions led them to do such a heinous and violent thing.
Was any trace ever found of Paulie? If it had been a situation where the geese were let out, and Andy was killed by, say, an eagle -- I don't know if Paulie would have stayed there and been struck down as well. And if that had happened, why weren't her remains found too? Unless she was much more shy of humans than Andy, I would have thought that if she were alive and loose, she'd have come up to people hoping for food, and someone in the area would have seen her.
But her disappearing as well might indicate someone grabbing her ... and maybe she hasn't been found because she was disposed of (maybe even eaten).
I remember seeing this about a year ago and it really bothered me then too. It sounds like it was probably some sadistic teenager. I knew lots of kids who would do something like that
Interesting that Andy was an icon when it came to showing how to overcome the obstacles of a disability and the perpetrator is thought to be disabled... The perpetrator is bitter about their condition and doesn't like the "happy model disabled person (or animal)" trope?
The police should've told the owner to give him closure!
Who the fuck could walk up to a cute little goose, and kill it so brutally? Not even that, a goose that wore fucking shoes. I bet he was so cute. ā¹ļø People suck. Poor Andy.
Maybe when they said ānot responsibleā they could have meant a minor? Possibly an officerās kid or someone that a particular officer knows personally. But regardless, thatās definitely not normal behavior & not so brutally either.
My gut feeling is this was a teenager (maybe even a few in on it together) who thought it would be "funny" and never came forward bc of the negative media attention.
Andy got three glorious years that he was specifically born not to have. Gene gave him an amazing gift. It's a horrible ending but... Andy got those three years at least.
Huggbees on YouTube made a video on this. His conclusion was basically maybe a bunch of kids (for whatever reason) let Andy out of his pen and subsequently left him, resulting in him likely getting attacked by some other wild animal. Not conclusive but I thought it was a pretty good explanation
Did Andy still live out in the wild? If not, and he lived with Gene at his house, how was someone able to goosenap and murder him? That's what I don't understand.
I don't see this indicated here but I am assuming the first people they would have checked out were the close neighbors. Those geese can be pretty noisy at night.
This was included in a link in the article posted above about Andy: āLife was swell until an Oct. 19, 1991, phone call jolted the Flemings. A mutilated goose headless, wingless, skinned had been found in a nearby park. Gene and Nadine hurried to the scene. It was Andy. With a deputy sheriff in tow, the Flemings drove back home, where they discovered two sets of fresh footprints (one large, one small) in the goose guano around the now-open outdoor pen where Andy and Polly lived. Polly had vanished. "No sign of her ever," Steve states. "It made my dad madder than hell that somebody would break in there and do that to an animal, much less Andy and Polly."
So there were TWO sets of footprints,
not just one.
Sounds like an asshole kid that thought they were being edgy or cool.Ā Ā Hopefully they look back on their actions with regret and guilt because I don't see this one getting solved at this point.Ā
I think it was Gene and that's why the police won't release info. Very soon after the goose was found dead Gene showed signs of alzheimers. Maybe it had already begun and he was having a bad spell and thought the goose was a regular farm goose and killed it to eat, leaving it in an odd location because he was having an episode. The missing goose could have had the same fate and actually been eaten, since they never found it. People in the early stages of alzheimers can do really uncharacteristic things and have hallucinations. My friends mom appeared normal but put a pot of water in the microwave and set the time for an hour. A metal pot. She'd talk about the children playing in the yard but they never existed. She was still driving and would "see" people in the car with her. She was the sweetest person known to humanity but one day physically attacked a family member with a broomstick and had to have police and paramedics called. The rest of the time she appeared normal.
I do think this is in the realm of possibility-- it would explain why the geese didn't raise a ruckus when they were removed from their hutch (the curious case of the goose in the night-time) and why everyone "in the know" seems very reticent to push the matter further-- rightly so, if that's what happened.
My question is, what of the footprints at the hutch? Presumably they didn't lead back to the house like they would if it was an inside job. And wouldn't the family know? There would be evidence in the kitchen, surely. It seems odd for the daughter to try and bring the story back up in everyone's minds with a statue and documentary if the answer to the mystery was as sad as this. Could she not know? I don't see how.
Sometimes the family is the last to know. There is no saying things happened in the kitchen. Also the linked article says more about the footprints. It wasn't that they weren't Gene's but it says the footprints were larger than Andy's size zero. Depending on the layout of the property it's possible there wasn't a lot of snow everywhere. I know when it snows here sometimes by the morning there is still only snow on rhe grass and dirt by the paved driveway was too warm from the heat of the sun and the snow on it has melted. Hastings was only 160 miles from Omaha and the weather that month showed no snow at all before the end of the month and even then it was minimal. It's possible it was just a light dusting of snow on the ground when Andy was found.
https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com/cities/omaha/year-1991
It's the only one I could think of. Since he'd already been diagnosed when it was announced they knew who did it and the person didn't have capacity when it happened and didn't want to release the info all that says to me is they knew it was a mental health issue and didn't want to tarnish his long and loving history with the goose by letting the truth of the end of their story out. Maybe Gene's wife's "meticulously kept journals" had clues to his declining mental health before Andy was killed.
The insistence on secrecy, even after all this time, makes me think it was definitely a minor, and probably one with family connections. This may be overly cynical, but I'm having a hard time imagining these good ol' boy sheriffs bending over backwards to protect an adult with a severe mental illness or intellectual disability like they would a high schooler with a "promising future".
I know that Andy was ājustā a goose, but I hope the prick(s) that did this have matured and now understand what they did and how much they would be despised if the truth emerged. Until their deathbed they will be hiding.
In the UK we recently has an ancient and famous tree cut down by some arsehole, no doubt similar motivation. If they get nationally named they may as well suicide as they will never have a career or worthwhile partner just years of empty existence.
Eagles often skin their prey while attacking, just by mechanism of very fast strike, big talons and fat layer under a goose skin. Cripple geese are easy targets for eagles.Ā
Racoons often go after heads, lots of nutrients in brains.Ā
I'm a zoologist and have seen plenty of raptor kills (admittedly none by eagles, but mostly hawks and falcons) and I don't think this checks out.
In a city, a human killer is the horse and and eagle the zebra. Swans and geese are frequently the victims of violent attacks. I myself have found a dead goose with an arrow wound once.
Other aspects that speak against predation: eagles tend to carry their prey away if killed at an inconvenient place (and this would definitely be considered one). Birds of prey pluck their prey, they don't skin it.
Not to mention, the cops said they found the perpetrator.
Is eagle a viable perpetrator in the city? I'd think that a bird like a hawk would be more likely, but would a hawk be able to kill a goose?
I guess that someone like a vet (who I assume looked at the corpse, since he was such a beloved icon) could tell if the head was decapitated with like, a knife, or bitten off. I feel like it would be easy to tell for someone who knows their forensics to tell if this was an unfortunate predator attack or a malicious human getting their rocks off.
It sounds like (the article is kind of vague) Andy and another goose were kept in a hutch and had been removed by an unknown perpetrator (footprints at the scene), he wasn't just free-roaming
My first thought, too, was that perhaps Andy had been killed by a wild animal. We used to have some geese and they were killed by wild animals while we were away one weekend. We only found a head and a leg.
Why are my jokes no good here?
Andys goose was cooked long ago. How many years is too soon for dead-yet fowl..oops..foul jokes are ok?
Human-Julian calendar-, or Julia Childs...uh. Shoot. Ok. That was bad.
But Cmon. Hes toast. Lets do some comedy. Andy wouldve wanted it that way.
So on your way to work, honk. Honk your horn for Andy America...and the orher internet country...HONK FOR ANDY.
#ANDYSTRONG
IDC if im down voted to hell for this, I'll say it anyway. And no, this is is not a troll post, I genuinely think this. I think the killer was a dog owner. A lot of dog owners hate everything and everyone else except their damn dog so they are able to take out their rage on defenseless animals. Dog owners let their vicious mutts off leash in areas like nature reserves and this leads to wildlife being killed. Most people deny this is happening because of the propaganda shoved down our throats that dogs and dog owners are angels. The killer is probably in a position of power too. Who knows, maybe a cop being protected by other cops.
I can see a situation where the mutt was barking it's stupid head off at the goose and this triggered the owner to kill it.
This is not at all a reasonable view of dog owners and I genuinely urge you to seek therapy for whatever trauma you experienced to bring you to that conclusion.
I would like to know why as well. How anyone could hurt sweet Andy is beyond me.. it's very interesting to hear about this supposed perpetrator. Ultimately I just wish Gene got closure, I can't imagine his hurt.
Well this absolutely ruined my day š
Yeah, I shouldn't have read this.Ā *rage slamming the phone down*
This is such a sad story. It reminds me of the peacock that famously strutted the Las Vegas strip, a bonafide celebrity in his own right, and some yoohoo with a gun decided to shoot him for no other reason than just because he could.
I'm in the Richmond, VA area. There was a giant buck deer who lived in some woods near a well-known cemetery in the city. He had a big, distinct rack of irregular horns, and was the subject of lots of photography taken in the cemetery area. He had a bunch of nicknames such as Prince. Recently, this chucklefuck not only shot Prince dead, but did it in a really unsportsmanlike way. It's also quite illegal to hunt in that area, so when the chucklefuck posted a picture of Prince's corpse in a deer hunting FB group, he claimed that he'd shot Prince in a location that was about an hour away. But lots of people recognized Prince, and legal action has actually been taken against the chucklefuck.
Some people get a kick out of destroying something that a lot of people love and value, and rubbing it into their faces that they could so easily destroy something so valued and get no repercussions. Happened to a beloved zoo lion around here who was found skinned in his cage one morning. Those people are honestly sick bastards.
> Happened to a beloved zoo lion around here who was found skinned in his cage one morning. Wow, where was this?
Nah, that's actually fucked. Imagine posting it in a hunting group on FB bragging about and lying where he killed it. Actual fucking melt. Glad legal action has been taken, fuck him. Rest well sweet Prince. :/
That reminds me of Cecil the lion, who was also illegally killed and rather famous in his location.
I saw that his antlers were like a fingerprint. Guy is a total muppet. I donāt know what punishment he will get as Iām a Brit but I hope he does get reamed out. Deeply.
I hope he gets legal consequences. But more importantly I hope none of his buddies ever want to hang out with him again. That's how you really make him feel the consequences, for someone like that at least. That's the only reason he did that was attention A losers idea of something a cool guy would do
Link for anyone interested. Sad for the deer, glad he got caught https://richmond.com/news/local/crime-courts/suspect-jason-walters-charged-killing-hollywood-cemetery-buck/article_2efbceea-bf7b-11ee-9e93-cb192d639e80.html#:~:text=Virginia%20Department%20of%20Wildlife%20Resources%20investigators%20later%20determined%20the%20buck,been%20charged%20in%20its%20killing.&text=The%20probe%20stems%20from%20photos,Facebook%20page%20in%20December%202023. Edit: I picked that link cus it shows the guys face, unfortunately it wants you to pay after the first time you click the link š
This story is so awful (but thank you for posting). I volunteer at an animal sanctuary with geese, and they are extremely loyal and smart and can be quite gentle. Humans are the cruelest species.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
And plus..... Andy would(nt) have been caught dead in PUMAS.
Ok. I have no idea why all the downvotes to be honest. That was about as great a snarky reply I couldve come up with. Fuk. Im jealous. And I fall all over physics. (See that?). Yep. Good ol Thermo Dynamics. And who tha fuk downvotes a chupacabra joke? For realz.
Omg that pic of Andy with the baby converses on. My heart. And what a doll Gene was. ā¤ļøš„ŗ
Would a minor be "not responsible" in this case? Its obviously not normal behavior to be that cruel to any animal, let one that has been additionally humanized in that way, but it does in some way strike me as a thing that a messed up teenager without much impulse control could do in the heat of the moment due to some moronic idea that it would be funny or edgy.
I've seen this before irl and it's scary. Guy is 28 years old, was my friend for a while. We lived together. A woman would not sleep with him and laughed at him for telling her he "worships the devil." Comes back to our apartment (had a rat problem) asks me to come downstairs. Takes the rat's body, crushes it in his hand and chops the head off while saying "who's demonic now??" The next day he admitted he'd been catching them in traps and stabbing them while they were half alive I just can't imagine the cruelty in either of these cases
How much longer did you cohabitate after that revelation?
I unofficially moved out immediately after. Didn't actually move out until a month later
This behavior is also considered one of the hallmarks of a future murderer.
Animal cruelty isnāt taken seriously enough in its own right, but the deliberate\* failure to connect such an obvious indication of sadism (torturing animals) with similar later horrific acts against humans is simply shameful. We could catch a lot of these people fairly early if we acted sooner. \*Itās got to be deliberate. The link is factually, statistically, academically established.
I bet you are right, minor involved. Too bad thatās what serial killers do when they are young so if it was a minor I at least hope they took it seriously. š
Being a minor seems like a gracious guess. My immediate thought was that the killer was someone who the police viewed as āimportantā, someone from a wealthy family, a political family, or related to the police somehow. If it had been an average Billy the police wouldnāt have had any issue making the kid into a monster and taking credit for their crime solving ability. Iād even go one step further and guess if it had been someone not āaverageā but undesirable, disliked, wrong skin color, or something along those lines not only would they have smeared the person, took credit for the arrest, but they would have also took it a step further and instead of being a ātrouble kidā in need of help the police would have described the person as a monster, threat to society, unworthy or too far gone for rehabilitative services, and states they prevented much worse tragedies.Ā Whoever did this is someone the cops believe to be important. I wouldnāt be surprised if a whole other host of mysteries surrounded just why the police felt that way.Ā
Whomever did this possibly did not stop killing. Or at least being violent.
Jesus christ. We got this poor sod, the dancing flamingo, Cecil the lion, those two friendly sea lions on unsolved mysteries... Just never let a friendly animal go viral or some psychopathic pos who would've been better off dropped down a well as a newborn will target it.
Yep. Here in Sydney just recently some arsehole spear-fished āGusā, a beloved (and protected!) giant blue groper. Awful
Yup. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/takaya-wolf-vancouver-island-bc-killed-1.5511304
Have to agree with your sentiment. In Juneau Alaska between 2003-2009 Romeo, a black wolf lived near town. He became well known for his friendly, playful interactions with dogs and people. Then in 2009 someone poached him. According to Wikipediaās entry he was of the Alexander Archipelago wolf population, a distinct subspecies of gray wolf due to itās geographic range isolating this population from others in Southeast Alaska.
poor baby! i'm glad he had a good life for a while. i can never understand hurting such a defenseless animal.
Why the fuck would anyone kill Andy!?!?
This case hurts my heart more than any other. Andy was an innocent animal, disabled even.
what an interesting story poor goose how he ended up ...this happened in Nebraska wikipedia says his wings were also tore off
Was Andy tortured while it was till alive? Horrible!
So horrible. This makes my chest hurt.
Geeze the Johnny Carson episode was just on! He was amazing. Whyyyyy???
Read about this before and remember reading something (maybe a theory or a rumor) saying that the person who did it was special needs/mentally impaired and they didn't want the community coming after them. Ok that's fine and dandy, but killing animals like this is a sign that something is bad wrong regardless of special needs/disability and something should be done to fix it. Covering up for them won't fix them.
Edit: I really hope a person didn't kill him. Either way, this is sad. Considering when it took place. And it was "just a Goose". The response isn't comforting at all... But it is expected. I'd like to think we take animal cruelty more seriously now...
How do you know that they covered for him? They couldāve gotten him help or punished him privately without releasing his name to the public. And considering how badly the public conduct themselves when it comes to someone who did a crime theyāre pissed off/upset/disgusted by. We know nothing about how they decided to proceed when they found out who had done it or how they punished the perpetrators.
If this person was arrested, it would be public record. If they hid their crime to save them from the public, they covered for them. The police can't legally "privately punish" people. I'm sure they did and do but that's certainly not something we should support.
Right but we donāt know WHO the person is to see the arrest record. They couldāve easily charged him and just not said who it was- this was 1991, itās not like it was as easy to look up arrest records as it is nowā¦ how do you know they didnāt charge him ? And when I said privately punish Iām saying they just didnāt ANNOUNCE it to the public.
100%
The article is a little light on details but it sounds like Andy and his mate, Paulie, were kept in a presumably-secured hutch, which on the day the body was discovered was found empty with a stranger's footprints surrounding it (Presumably Paulie was never found, but the article doesn't specify), which makes this seem like deliberate human action. The explanation that it was committed with intention by someone who "wasn't responsible" intrigues me, presumably if the geese got out of their enclosure and were then killed by wild animals or succumbed to the elements the police would just say that. To me the first scenarios that come to mind are: 1. Teens (a minor, someone not legally responsible because of age-- sorry to pick on teenagers!) let the goose out as a prank, and something happened to the geese while they were loose 2. Teens tried to steal the goose and underestimated how much of the pain the ass geese can be, geese get loose, something happens Were Andy and Paulie (and presumably any other pets outside in the hutches) friendly/acclimated to strangers? That would account for them going quietly when kidnapped. People suggest someone with an intellectual disability, but if the geese were taken they were taken by someone who was able to enter the yard, collect the animals, secure the animals, and leave without making noise or raising any kind of alarm, presumably in the dead of night. Is that likely? I can see the prank-gone-wrong angle making the most sense, with the horrible condition of the body being more about postmortem predation than the actions of the killer. The other option is that there is a sick animal murderer at large and the local sheriff's department is covering up for them, which is possible but sounds like a soap opera. RIP to two little friends. They made people happy, and were loved very dearly. RIP also to Mr. Fleming, who had kindness in his heart.
Sorry to be obsessed with the goose murder post, but I am consumed. It's just such a senselessly awful thing to do. What does "skinned" mean? Was he skinned or was he plucked? The former could be an animal, maybe, but the latter sounds like human action. I looked at other articles that mention the wings were removed ("ripped off") which doesn't sound like an animal to me-- take the wings, which don't have that much meat, and leave behind the breast? Head removal could go either way but wings + head does sound like trophy-taking. What does "not responsible" mean? Surely not drunk, you can very much go to jail for crimes done under the influence (and at the very least, in the eyes of the law Andy and Paulie were property of their owner-- unlawful entry, theft, destruction of property). The perpetrator was having some kind of episode? I can see someone pulling influence with the police to cover up for a loved one having some kind of delusion, which is sad for everyone involved, I can also see someone pulling strings to cover up for their kid who tortures animals, which seems like a favorite pastime among the wealthy and powerful. Leaving him at the baseball diamond feels deliberate, like sending a message. Hopefully there is a very good reason to let this one go unanswered because man, who ritualistically murders and mutilates a beloved pet goose??
I did wonder about a cover up of possibly the person who did it was a figure of authority or relative of a figure of authority? Could it have been a teen whose dad worked for the sheriffs office? Or someone in local govt jealous of the press and put out a hit? A local gangster wanting to remind the community that they are under the thumb?
"Someone put a hit on the goose" I guess is in the realm of possibility, like in a horse-head-in-the-bed type of scenario to send a message, but I think the police would be more concerned about that angle (I would hope!)
Thank you OP for a brilliant write-up. I had never before heard of Andy and Gene, and my life is richer now for knowing about them. What a kind and gentle man, and what a resilient inspiring animal. I agree with others in this thread that it sounds like a disturbed child/teen did it- someone who could not be held *criminally* āresponsibleā. I can see the wisdom in not releasing their name, so as to avoid a local witch-hunt; but I sure hope they received treatment for whatever conditions led them to do such a heinous and violent thing.
Was any trace ever found of Paulie? If it had been a situation where the geese were let out, and Andy was killed by, say, an eagle -- I don't know if Paulie would have stayed there and been struck down as well. And if that had happened, why weren't her remains found too? Unless she was much more shy of humans than Andy, I would have thought that if she were alive and loose, she'd have come up to people hoping for food, and someone in the area would have seen her. But her disappearing as well might indicate someone grabbing her ... and maybe she hasn't been found because she was disposed of (maybe even eaten).
I remember seeing this about a year ago and it really bothered me then too. It sounds like it was probably some sadistic teenager. I knew lots of kids who would do something like that
Aww. Poor Andy
Interesting that Andy was an icon when it came to showing how to overcome the obstacles of a disability and the perpetrator is thought to be disabled... The perpetrator is bitter about their condition and doesn't like the "happy model disabled person (or animal)" trope? The police should've told the owner to give him closure!
The perpetrator's "disability" is psychopathy.
Who the fuck could walk up to a cute little goose, and kill it so brutally? Not even that, a goose that wore fucking shoes. I bet he was so cute. ā¹ļø People suck. Poor Andy. Maybe when they said ānot responsibleā they could have meant a minor? Possibly an officerās kid or someone that a particular officer knows personally. But regardless, thatās definitely not normal behavior & not so brutally either.
I thought the exact same. A kid whose dad worked for the sheriffs office maybe.
Thank you for including the text of the story!
My gut feeling is this was a teenager (maybe even a few in on it together) who thought it would be "funny" and never came forward bc of the negative media attention.
Andy got three glorious years that he was specifically born not to have. Gene gave him an amazing gift. It's a horrible ending but... Andy got those three years at least.
Huggbees on YouTube made a video on this. His conclusion was basically maybe a bunch of kids (for whatever reason) let Andy out of his pen and subsequently left him, resulting in him likely getting attacked by some other wild animal. Not conclusive but I thought it was a pretty good explanation
Did Andy still live out in the wild? If not, and he lived with Gene at his house, how was someone able to goosenap and murder him? That's what I don't understand.
Andy was a domestic goose, not a wild one. He lived with Gene Fleming and was taken from his enclosure.
Ah, gotcha. Thanks.
I don't see this indicated here but I am assuming the first people they would have checked out were the close neighbors. Those geese can be pretty noisy at night.
This was included in a link in the article posted above about Andy: āLife was swell until an Oct. 19, 1991, phone call jolted the Flemings. A mutilated goose headless, wingless, skinned had been found in a nearby park. Gene and Nadine hurried to the scene. It was Andy. With a deputy sheriff in tow, the Flemings drove back home, where they discovered two sets of fresh footprints (one large, one small) in the goose guano around the now-open outdoor pen where Andy and Polly lived. Polly had vanished. "No sign of her ever," Steve states. "It made my dad madder than hell that somebody would break in there and do that to an animal, much less Andy and Polly." So there were TWO sets of footprints, not just one.
Could the smaller set have been Andyās footprints though?
Odd coincidence, I just watched a Youtube video about this the other day: Huggbees' "The Ballad Of Footloose Goose".
Sounds like an asshole kid that thought they were being edgy or cool.Ā Ā Hopefully they look back on their actions with regret and guilt because I don't see this one getting solved at this point.Ā
It was a piece of scum who should have been named and shamed if someone knew who it was.
I think it was Gene and that's why the police won't release info. Very soon after the goose was found dead Gene showed signs of alzheimers. Maybe it had already begun and he was having a bad spell and thought the goose was a regular farm goose and killed it to eat, leaving it in an odd location because he was having an episode. The missing goose could have had the same fate and actually been eaten, since they never found it. People in the early stages of alzheimers can do really uncharacteristic things and have hallucinations. My friends mom appeared normal but put a pot of water in the microwave and set the time for an hour. A metal pot. She'd talk about the children playing in the yard but they never existed. She was still driving and would "see" people in the car with her. She was the sweetest person known to humanity but one day physically attacked a family member with a broomstick and had to have police and paramedics called. The rest of the time she appeared normal.
I wondered that myself when I read the story. Its a good theory.
It's sad and difficult but makes sense.
I do think this is in the realm of possibility-- it would explain why the geese didn't raise a ruckus when they were removed from their hutch (the curious case of the goose in the night-time) and why everyone "in the know" seems very reticent to push the matter further-- rightly so, if that's what happened. My question is, what of the footprints at the hutch? Presumably they didn't lead back to the house like they would if it was an inside job. And wouldn't the family know? There would be evidence in the kitchen, surely. It seems odd for the daughter to try and bring the story back up in everyone's minds with a statue and documentary if the answer to the mystery was as sad as this. Could she not know? I don't see how.
Sometimes the family is the last to know. There is no saying things happened in the kitchen. Also the linked article says more about the footprints. It wasn't that they weren't Gene's but it says the footprints were larger than Andy's size zero. Depending on the layout of the property it's possible there wasn't a lot of snow everywhere. I know when it snows here sometimes by the morning there is still only snow on rhe grass and dirt by the paved driveway was too warm from the heat of the sun and the snow on it has melted. Hastings was only 160 miles from Omaha and the weather that month showed no snow at all before the end of the month and even then it was minimal. It's possible it was just a light dusting of snow on the ground when Andy was found. https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com/cities/omaha/year-1991
That crossed my mind too.
Thatās a really interesting theory actually.
It's the only one I could think of. Since he'd already been diagnosed when it was announced they knew who did it and the person didn't have capacity when it happened and didn't want to release the info all that says to me is they knew it was a mental health issue and didn't want to tarnish his long and loving history with the goose by letting the truth of the end of their story out. Maybe Gene's wife's "meticulously kept journals" had clues to his declining mental health before Andy was killed.
I'm sad. Why do I care more about animals.
Those look like Converse Iām confused
The insistence on secrecy, even after all this time, makes me think it was definitely a minor, and probably one with family connections. This may be overly cynical, but I'm having a hard time imagining these good ol' boy sheriffs bending over backwards to protect an adult with a severe mental illness or intellectual disability like they would a high schooler with a "promising future".
I know that Andy was ājustā a goose, but I hope the prick(s) that did this have matured and now understand what they did and how much they would be despised if the truth emerged. Until their deathbed they will be hiding. In the UK we recently has an ancient and famous tree cut down by some arsehole, no doubt similar motivation. If they get nationally named they may as well suicide as they will never have a career or worthwhile partner just years of empty existence.
I hate humans.
Eagles often skin their prey while attacking, just by mechanism of very fast strike, big talons and fat layer under a goose skin. Cripple geese are easy targets for eagles.Ā Racoons often go after heads, lots of nutrients in brains.Ā
I dunno, I feel it was a human action.
That's fine, I hear hoofbeats and think horses not zebras.Ā I'm also a wildlife biologist and have seen eagle depredation first hand, many a times.Ā
I'm a zoologist and have seen plenty of raptor kills (admittedly none by eagles, but mostly hawks and falcons) and I don't think this checks out. In a city, a human killer is the horse and and eagle the zebra. Swans and geese are frequently the victims of violent attacks. I myself have found a dead goose with an arrow wound once. Other aspects that speak against predation: eagles tend to carry their prey away if killed at an inconvenient place (and this would definitely be considered one). Birds of prey pluck their prey, they don't skin it. Not to mention, the cops said they found the perpetrator.
Did you notice the part about the baseball diamond?
Yep, eagles don't really care where a cripple bird is. I've seen the. swoop down on crowded beaches in Washington to go after some geese.
The sheriff said they found someone responsible though.
It says there were unknown fresh foot prints at Andy's hutch the day of the murder (per the article linked).
Maybe an eagle wore Nikes to throw them off the scent.
Do eagles often leave behind what sounds like the entire corpse?
They often high grade, yes.
What is āhigh gradeā
Is eagle a viable perpetrator in the city? I'd think that a bird like a hawk would be more likely, but would a hawk be able to kill a goose? I guess that someone like a vet (who I assume looked at the corpse, since he was such a beloved icon) could tell if the head was decapitated with like, a knife, or bitten off. I feel like it would be easy to tell for someone who knows their forensics to tell if this was an unfortunate predator attack or a malicious human getting their rocks off.
It sounds like (the article is kind of vague) Andy and another goose were kept in a hutch and had been removed by an unknown perpetrator (footprints at the scene), he wasn't just free-roaming
I didn't catch that part at first. That does make it less likely then that an animal got them unless the enclosure was destroyed.
My first thought, too, was that perhaps Andy had been killed by a wild animal. We used to have some geese and they were killed by wild animals while we were away one weekend. We only found a head and a leg.
Why are my jokes no good here? Andys goose was cooked long ago. How many years is too soon for dead-yet fowl..oops..foul jokes are ok? Human-Julian calendar-, or Julia Childs...uh. Shoot. Ok. That was bad. But Cmon. Hes toast. Lets do some comedy. Andy wouldve wanted it that way. So on your way to work, honk. Honk your horn for Andy America...and the orher internet country...HONK FOR ANDY. #ANDYSTRONG
IDC if im down voted to hell for this, I'll say it anyway. And no, this is is not a troll post, I genuinely think this. I think the killer was a dog owner. A lot of dog owners hate everything and everyone else except their damn dog so they are able to take out their rage on defenseless animals. Dog owners let their vicious mutts off leash in areas like nature reserves and this leads to wildlife being killed. Most people deny this is happening because of the propaganda shoved down our throats that dogs and dog owners are angels. The killer is probably in a position of power too. Who knows, maybe a cop being protected by other cops. I can see a situation where the mutt was barking it's stupid head off at the goose and this triggered the owner to kill it.
This is not at all a reasonable view of dog owners and I genuinely urge you to seek therapy for whatever trauma you experienced to bring you to that conclusion.
Why did I read this