CRESTVIEW — Twin Hills Park's geese may molt, mate or migrate.
But three "will not be kicked or chased," Crestview resident Charles Raybon stated on the News Bulletin's Facebook page earlier this week.
Awhile ago, he and his wife, Paula, bought three Chinese geese from a local grain store and gave them to a friend, who released them in Twin Hills Park.
Raybon reclaimed the geese earlier this week after seeing widely circulated video of a woman confronting them, kicking them and bragging about it afterward. He said he "removed the three geese (from the park) and brought them home to be with the others they were raised with."
Crestview police have arrested Alyssa L. Pack, 20, of Baker and charged her with animal cruelty. She was arrested without incident and transported to Okaloosa County Jail, police said.
In the video, which hundreds of Facebook users have shared throughout the week, a woman tells the geese, "I'll beat you so hard you won't even know it," while jumping back and forth in front of the animals before, it appears, she kicks one of the geese on the head.
A child, seen briefly in the video, laughs.
Because a child was involved in the incident, the state Department of Children and Families should be brought into the investigation, Panhandle Animal Welfare Services Director Dee Thompson said.
"Disturbing as it was to see what she did, it was more disturbing to hear the child laughing in the background because that child has seen something that causes it to think that harming an animal is funny," Thompson said.
Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes at 850-682-6524 or brianh@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Geese's former owner reclaims birds; attacker charged with animal cruelty