Walnut Creek man says violent geese left him limping after attack

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (KGO) -- A Walnut Creek man says he was left with a limp after being attacked by a group of geese at Heather Farm Park Wednesday.

A.J. Buttacavoli does not know whether to laugh or cry at the cause of the limp he acquired in the attack.

Buttacavoli says he was confronted by three geese in a coordinated attack.

No one knows when the first Canada goose landed in Heather Farm Park, but now there are many of them. They can be pretty to look at, and territorial it appears.

"There have been no formal complaints filed," Gale Vassar with the city of Walnut Creek told ABC7.

Vassar said that because Canada geese enjoy endangered species status the city can take only limited measures in encouraging them to leave. None have worked so far. "The geese are in their molting period which means they are getting ready to breed," she said. "They look very benign. But they're not. They're vicious."

So vicious that Buttacavoli says that while trying to escape those attacking geese yesterday he fell. It's how he injured his leg.

"Yeah they looked like any gees you see. Yeah, high long neck, full body, grayish, brownish, white-ish," Buttacavoli said.

Call it a cautionary tale of man and nature, face to face in a suburban park. Clearly the rules change during mating season.

Buttacavoli said nothing like this has happened to him before. "Oh no, and I am from New York."