Published Tuesday, 09 November 2010
After almost four weeks of slowly starving to death, but evading its would-be rescuers, the goose was captured and taken to a local vet on Monday.
The can, discarded at the Black Lough beauty spot by litter louts, had to be cut from the bird's lower beak. Although quite badly injured, he is now able to feed and has been released back where he belongs.
"Most of his fat stores have been depleted because he's gone almost four weeks without food," Denise Corbett from the Black Lough Wildlife Group told UTV.
"So we're going to try and feed him up and hopefully he'll survive. But he's with his mates and he's in his own environment and that's where he should be."
Stephen Foster from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency said the rescue had eventually turned out to be quite simple in the end.
"We launched a small boat with an outboard motor and put the birds up in flight," he explained.
"The bird with the can on its beak dropped out pretty quickly and, when we went up to it, it didn't go far. We just scooped it up with a net and into the boat."
Many concerned animal lovers had travelled to the area over the past few days to try to help the stricken bird - now they are still keen to take a gander at the recovering goose and make sure he doesn't fall 'fowl' of any other mishaps.