Hi all! OP (of the reddit post) here! The ducks appear to be pretty well taken care of, as it turns out. They are on land with a pond adjoining a business park; however, there is no indication that they are being fed etc for me to think they belonged to the business. Additionally, when I went across the street to Ace Hardware, I asked the clerk and he actually suggested I take some (which I didn't). I then posted in some town FB groups, was pretty quickly corrected and removed my posts. Someone took a screenshot before I did, which they sent to the owner, who promptly called the police about it, then posted in the same FB groups my name, where I was from, the posts (that had been removed), and some pretty unkind remarks. These posts got literally hundreds of comments over the day. A few hours after I apologized and explained myself, both privately to the business owner and then to publicly to the groups when I saw he was still commenting but not responding to me, he finally responded and said I could take the injured duck and he would reimburse me for the vet costs. Now everyone's happy and treating him like the town hero for giving me a second chance.
All and all, very strange experience to be maligned on social media. I have many, many thoughts and feelings about these ducks and their well-being (owner told me himself they've had to bury many... Hmmm, maybe that's why they should be protected?), so I'll be keeping a close eye on them, townsfolk be damned.
