DUCK TRAP FLAP
THE carcass of a dead duck will be left hanging in the net of a Gold Coast golf course, five days after it was first spotted tangled.
The duck was seen on Saturday trapped about 20m from the ground at KDV Sport at Carrara.
The RSPCA and firefighters were unable to save it after calls from the public, and the sports centre said it could not lower the nets or get a crane in because of the recent heavy rain.
THE carcass of a dead duck will be left hanging in the net of a Gold Coast golf course, five days after it was first spotted tangled.
The duck was seen on Saturday with its leg in the net about 20m from the ground at KDV Sport at Carrara.
The RSPCA received multiple calls.
An RSPCA volunteer arrived at the sports centre on Saturday morning and called firefighters to help save the bird. However, they were unable to reach it.
On Sunday, another volunteer, Iain Bailer, went to KDV Sport and asked staff if they could lower the nets.
“They told me they couldn’t, as the nets are fixed,” he said.
Senior vet at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary Dr Michael Pyne said no doubt the bird would have suffered.
“They should have cut the fence down,” he said. “Often when an animal is so tangled in the net, the rescuer will cut it out of the fence.”
KDV Sport marketing manager Daman Foy said it was a “horrible situation” but there was little staff could do.
“We would need to get a crane to take the nets down but it backs on to a manmade lake. Due to the rain we weren’t able to get a crane as it would have been bogged.
“We contacted the RSPCA on Saturday about 11am after one of our clients told us. We’ve tried doing everything we can but we are not sure what else we can do.”
KDV Sport did not comment when asked if they have an action plan, noise deterrence, or if they are trying to remove the bird.
RSPCA spokesman Michael Beatty said volunteers asked KDV Sport to take the net down over the weekend and was told “oh well, it’s already dead”.
“They need to take responsibility for what they’ve put up,” Mr Beatty said.
Topgolf in Oxenford has never had an issue with animals becoming trapped in the nets as they have noise deterrence installed.
“We have policies and procedures for events like these,” spokesman Mitchell Olivey said. “We would stop all game play until the animal was released. Depending on the scenario, if it was unreachable, we would cut the net down.”