Michigan

[Wynette]

Good morning, folks! I have an aquaintance that works in water fowl rescue and I just received this e-mail - thought I would pass it along for anyone interested. Hope you are all well & staying WARM! BRRRR!!!!!

Someone has contacted my organization in regards to finding placement for 30 domestic ducks-Cayuga Blacks and Blue Swedish breeds. The woman got them at a 4-H sale to save them from being slaughtered. Now she has lost her job and is having difficulty providing scratch and straw for them. Even if you have a resource for a small group of them (we don't want to split up those that are bonded), that would be helpful.

We do rescue domestic ducks however try to limit our intakes to emergency situations, like when they get abandoned on water sources-without any chances of survival.

This woman is looking for a life-long home where they will NOT end up on a dinner plate and where they will be cared for properly-not just fed scraps etc.

If you can provide a good resource, please email me. We are also looking for resources for free straw for her. She is located in the Lapeer area--if you have any free straw resources, please do send me those too!

Thanks for your time,
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Sophia DiPietro
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[Olive Hill]

Gosh, I know it's a novel idea, but you know, if people stopped "rescuing" animals from situations that don't warrant rescuing and focused on those that are actually in need there'd be a whole lot less animals requiring help.

 

[keyt1969]

They were going to be slaughtered. That sounds like a situation that was warranted. Now if they were calls, I'd take that on because I need 2-3 females lol

 

[vicki2x2]

The thing is, they are meat breeds, that is what they were designed for. Sure we can make pets out of them and that is ok, but there is nothing wrong with making them food either. I mean, people aren't rescuing 30 cows at a time and wanting to keep them as pets. Though I would love a pet cow, I couldn't afford 30. Call ducks are different, they were never meant to be food, they were bred to call in wild ducks for hunting purposes originally and now used for ornamental purposes, i.e. pets.

Personally I not a duck eating fan, but see nothing wrong with it, just a personal choice. Maybe I didn't have it fixed right. Anyway, I think what Diana (Olive Hill) was trying to say, was "rescue" means taking a neglected or abused animal out of that situation. These animals weren't neglected or abused, they were just destined for the table. She might have "saved" them from their fate, but I wouldn't use rescue either. They weren't going to be killed for the fun of it or cruelly, they were going to be processed like the rest of the meat on our tables.

 

[SillyChicken]

I have to agree with you guys, how much stress are these animals being subjected to by being shuffled all over the state again, and again? Sometimes, even though their intentions may seem innocent or not without some merit, they can do more harm than good. There's nothing wrong with eating ducks, rabbits, chickens..... bambi's.

 

[Ferrret]

Found part of an egg shell with some of the egg frozen in it and the rest was no where to be seen, so I'm assuming it was eaten.

Will an egg eater continue to break open and eat eggs or is there a chance that this was a one time thing?

 

[keyt1969]

Quote:
ACK! Well that's news to me. I didn't know they were meat breeds. I sure can't imagine any of my ducks (I have both of those) being raised for eating. To each their own though. I'm not against it, animals have been used for eating forever, just not my thing. If I had the room for more bigger ducks I'd take some but only for calls.

Good luck finding good homes!

 

[michickenwrangler]

Quote:
Agree too. There's some idiots around here who claim they are "horse rescues" but they just buy cheap horses and put them in their backyard. One is actually a horse dentist (PM to find out who, he advertises in Saddle Up! the MI horse magazine) and he has 40+ horses on 10 acres with substandard fencing and housing. I think a lot of people are well-intended but don't realize the output in feed, money and work animals require.

 

[michickenwrangler]

Quote:
I'll definitely take you up on that offer when the weather warms.

We'll talk more when the weather warms!

We've got a LONG winter ahead of us.

 

[Olive Hill]

Regardless of our culture's perceived intention for any given animal, slaughter in and of itself is not a situation that requires rescuing. Ever. A quick, humane-as-possible death is far less distressing than carting them all about the state from home to home to home; repeatedly altering living conditions, environment and flock mates.

You would be hard pressed to find any domestic animal that does not descend from utility stock. Even call ducks -- whose history is relatively unclear -- are hypothesized to have been derived from what were called "Coy Ducks". Utility animals that were tethered by hunters for the purpose of calling in wild game to be shot. They weren't pets. It's thought that they were later derived from or crossed with bantam-sized ducks imported to the Netherland/Dutch area from the far east. Even today livestock intended for slaughter in the far east are very commonly smaller than those breeds chosen in the west. It would not be a crazy deduction to make that the bantam ducks thought to have been used to develop what's known today as the "Call Duck" was originally a meat breed in the far east. At that time, animals were not "just pets", after all. "Just pet" animals are largely a phenomenon manufactured by modern society in response to excess in resources as a result of the streamlining and industrialization of industry. "Just pets" are a luxury that until relatively recent history people could not afford. Unfortunately, society's perception of animals has altered rapidly and today animals being "just pets" is so deeply ingrained in some people's minds -- no matter how contrary to common sense -- that those who still cannot afford them have plenty of fodder to internally justify the "rescuing" of those animals from a fate they often have no understanding of. More often than not, they're just animal hoarders with poor ability to prioritize and a misguided desire to be needed. It's too bad the animals are the ones who ultimately pay the price of their bad decisions.

Animals being neglected and abused require rescuing, animals slated for a quick slaughter do not. Whether it's an angus steer, a cayuga duck or a siamese cat is of no consequence. The intended purpose of any given animal is a construct of the society in which it resides and societal constructs have no bearing on the experience of the animal whether that experience is slaughter, a pampered pet home or the unfortunate neglect that comes from living under the thumb of a hoarder. A dog neglected in China will have the same stress a dog neglected in the USA has. All else equal, that same dog would also experience the same thing whether slaughtered there or here. Just because we choose not to breed dogs for meat animals does not mean any dog bred for that intended purpose requires our rescuing; and the same goes for ducks, chickens, geese, turkeys, horses, cats, rats, and every other animal species in existence.

Quote:
Oh boy, horse "rescuers" are a subsegment of this problem all their own.