‘Operation duck rescue’ to save animals from starvation, heat exhaustion
Well-meaning but misguided quackos have been rounding up live meat ducks and dumping them at an inner west creek in an effort to save them from becoming someone’s dinner.
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Well-meaning but misguided quackos have been rounding up live meat ducks and dumping them at an inner west creek in an effort to save them from ending up on a dinner plate.
But the do-gooders’ ill-fated plan to set about 90 domesticated ducks free at Powells Creek Reserve in Concord West did not go swimmingly with many perishing as there is no source of freshwater, food or shade in the saltwater marshland.
Good Samaritans from the Concord Mums Unite! Facebook group launched “Operation Duck Rescue” to save 40 of the animals on April 12 and 19 following two dumps within days of each other.
The ordeal lasted several hours and involved the use of nets, cages and infinite patience as the ducks kept leaping off an elevated island into the water as their rescuers closed in.
One theory is the ducks were destined to end up on dinner plates at restaurants in the inner west, where duck is a popular menu item at Asian restaurants in suburbs like Burwood, Ashfield and Strathfield.
Diana Batkin gave the 40 ducks refuge in her Concord West backyard where they swam in wading pools, made friends with the family’s four dogs and enjoyed hot meals of brown rice and vegetables thanks to donations through the Facebook group.
Mystery shrouds the identity of the dumper but Ms Batkin has pleaded with them to stop as she estimates between 15 and 20 ducks — out of about 90 dumped since November — have died.
“They are obviously trying to save them and they have good intentions but they are misguided and very ill informed about the needs of ducks,” Ms Batkin said.
“They are subjecting them to a worse painful death than having their heads chopped off quickly because they are starving to death and suffering heat exhaustion.
“They were so desperate to get out of heat they were trying to stand in our shadow.
“It’s also not helping the biodiversity to have domestic ducks being dumped there.”
Ms Batkin recently found one of the creatures with its “head ripped off, possibly by an owl or a fox”.
She took another one with broken feathers to the vet who confirmed it was a Muscovy duck, one of the main breeds for meat production.
Most of them are Pekin ducks.
“Apparently they’re the best for meat so they were definitely meant for human consumption,” Ms Batkin said.
She said the “rumour mill” was in full swing and there have been suggestions the dumpers are Korean or from a church group.
There’s speculation they have been rescued to prevent them from being roasted and served with plum sauce at one of the local restaurants.
She said about 90 ducks where offloaded in four dumps in November, March and April.
After a two week recuperation holiday, Ms Batkin loaded most of the ducks onto a truck on Anzac Day and took them out to a 50-acre farm in Morpeth owned by horse trainers who agreed to keep them as pets.
Two of the ducks are going to live with vegans in Newtown and another two are going to live with a family of Muscovy ducks in the Blue Mountains.
Ms Batkin is keeping five as pets and she has named them Quackers, Spaghetti Legs, Bertha, Gertrude and Audrey — or Bertie, Gertie and Audie for short.