Have you ever seen one of those cute duckling or gosling, found as a tiny baby, being raised by humans and then those same humans think that it’s a good idea to release the bird as an adult, back into the wild, because they think it’s “What’s best for the bird?” Well let me tell you that they couldn’t be more wrong about it. While you might you are helping this cute little fuzzy bird that will follow any human willingly, you are actually giving that bird a death sentence.

When you raise a baby bird, you might think that you are doing them a favor by “Saving them” but when you release them later on to a “Wild Life” you are actually giving those birds a death sentence. Duckling and gosling, will naturally “Imprint” (of a young animal) come to recognize (another animal, person, or thing) as a parent or other object of habitual trust on their caretaker. This baby animal that was raised by a human, does NOT have fear of what wild birds would naturally be afraid of in the wild. They don’t know that they have to be afraid of humans, (Yes some humans are mean and will hurt birds for fun) they don’t know that they need to be aware of cars, predators, where to find food sources, water… They have been raised by a human that has given them food, water, shelter, care, love during their young lives. They don’t know any better than what the human as been giving them.

Take that baby bird two months later and what is it supposed to do ? Where are they supposed to find food and water ? They are not born with an internet map that tells them where water is, what food to eat, what to avoid, where to migrate, where to find a mate, where are safe nesting spots. It’s not no longer a natural instinct for them to find their food or water source because they weren’t raised with mama duck or mama goose to teach them those things, they were raised by a human and they don’t know where to find food and water, what to eat, where to drink ! It doesn’t come just naturally because they are animals, it’s learned through foraging for food with their mother in the wild and replicating everything their mother teach them. They don’t know to be aware of cars because they are dangerous. They don’t know what to fear, like birds of prey and where to hide.

I’ve seen it so many times on GeoBeat, The Dodo and all those sites that show you a cute video and story of human raising baby birds then releasing them in the wild. I actually have followed up on those stories and most if not all, are met with an horrible fate.

This guy, takes gosling out of the wild, thinking he is helping them when in fact, he lets them free to go and get hurt when they are able to fly. He is not even a licensed Wildlife rehabilitator and should not even be interfering with wild migratory birds according to the migratory act but hey, as long as his story gets clicks and you click on it and help making the news sites money, that’s all that matter it seems, common sense thrown out the window at the same time. The bird ended up being hurt and lost a wing and then who knows what happened to her. He suddenly stopped posting about Waddle and later on, started posting about another Canada Goose he “rescued” while having no idea what he is actually doing since he doesn’t have an actual license in rehabilitation.

We need to stop encouraging, glorifying, and giving attention to these stories where the animals are suffering horrible fate at the hands of humans. If you are not willing to care for those baby animals, find a place who will, like a sanctuary or a rehabilitation center, unless you are willing to keep that baby and commit to its welfare for the rest of their lives. It’s cruel and inhumane to raise them and think they will just happen to know how to survive in the wild without having ever been taught how to. He thinks he is now an expert and people bring birds to him…Once a bird has been raised by human, it no longer is a WILD bird. It becomes a captive, human raised bird that has lost ALL his natural instinct that it normally would from it’s mother.

This look cute right ? The duck never came back and most likely died. This happen way too often and we let it happen by not raising our concern on the well being of those human raised animals. There is never a follow up to see if the bird is actually alive and doing well.

It’s not cute at all when the duck or goose dies later because of irresponsible people. Humans have now taken matters into their own hands and think raising a duckling or gosling as cute as they are, can just be released back to nature later. Stop doing this. If you really care about the animal, you need to keep it for its whole life like Billy the pet duck on Youtube who’s owner found Billy as a lost duckling and kept him until he passed away of old age. Spread the word and awareness about releasing baby birds back to the wild. I assure you the bird won’t survive for very long. If you are an animal lover, we need to start raising our voices and tell people to stop doing that. Some have success stories of course, but they are very rare. The majority of those birds released by in the wild don’t live very long after being released. It’s very cruel. A lot of those birds are also protected under the Migratory Birds Act and it is actually illegal to remove them from the wild and take them home to raise them. The best thing to do in those case if the bird is in danger of dying, is it find it a permanent place where the bird will live a happy life with other birds of it’s kind, a rehabilitation center where the bird will be released back later with MINIMAL human interaction or a sanctuary where it will live happily for the rest of it’s life with others animals.

Think about the future of this poor baby released by into the unknown where it has never lived before and doesn’t know where to go and how to live. They deserve better than the horrible faith they suffer at our hands. I understand that a lot of people try to help these babies, but they are doing it wrong. A rehabilitation center, a permanent home or a sanctuary really is the best place for these poor babies to ensure a safe and long life. You can even try to have the baby adopted by another mother duck or goose, sometimes they will accept a lost baby, unless it’s injured. The best thing to do then is to make them stronger and see if any mother bird will take them or call the nearest rehabilitation center or sanctuary.