Good Samaritans rescue duck that had been shot

A mallard that was shot with an arrow was rescued by two good Samaritans in Costa Mesa on Wednesday evening.

The people who were not identified rescued the bird from a flood control drain at California and Iowa streets. Costa Mesa animal control officials delivered the injured bird to All Creatures Care Cottage, an animal hospital in Costa Mesa. He will be moved to the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach today.

“He’s hypothermic right now,” said Debbie McGuire, director of the Huntington center, who also works at the Costa Mesa animal hospital. “He’s in shock, and we are just stabilizing him.”

He had been caught in the rising water in the flood control drain and became hypothermic, Lisa Birkle, assistant wildlife director said.

A 24-inch arrow was removed from the duck’s breast under his right wing.

“He couldn’t fly because he was wounded under his wing, but he could float at least,” Birkle said.

The arrow was smaller than the 29-inch arrow that was removed from the neck of an Egyptian goose at the wildlife center recently. The goose, affectionately named Arrowhead by center volunteers, was found in Tri-City Park in Placentia. The arrow left a wound the size of a nickel that went all the way through the goose’s neck. Arrowhead is recovering and is expected to be released in a couple of weeks. The mallard will be kept at the center for a couple of weeks and be released.

Officials said they do not think the bird shootings are related.

“We are hoping that this is an isolated incident,” Birkle said of Wednesday’s duck shooting. “Looks like a kid was playing with a toy arrow and aimed for the fat part of his body and hit the breast.”

The arrow narrowly missed hitting its heart, McGuire said. Animal control officials reported that there were no witnesses, she said.

The two people who rescued the mallard did so at danger to themselves because of the rain Wednesday, McGuire said.

Birkle agreed. “The two Good Samaritans went down into the drain even though the waters were rising,” she said, adding that nobody should get into a ditch — especially one that has rising water in it.

The center is offering a $1,000 reward for information about Arrowhead’s shooter resulting in an arrest and conviction. They are working on putting up a similar reward for the mallard, McGuire said.