VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WVEC) -- A Virginia Beach retention pond that had been called a "death trap" for goslings and ducklings now has an escape route.
Members of the Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation landscape team installed a metal ramp that leads up from the Kempes Landing Park retention pond. The ramp was needed because the artificially built pond had no slope for animals to hop in and out of. Instead, it's completely enclosed by wooden and concrete walls.
Birds can jump or fly down into the water... but if baby geese or ducks go in, many were finding it impossible to get out.
"They will drown, they will die," SPCA volunteer Karen Roberts previously told 13News Now. "Last week, we had one that did die, and he actually cut himself up pretty bad diving under the rocks, trying to probably figure out what he was trying to do and how to get out."
In the past, volunteers had created makeshift ramps to help stranded birds escape. But now with the new permanent ramp in place, the hope is any flightless animals that go in to the pond now have a way out.
