What happened to this duck?

[chris330r]

I just noticed another one with the exact same wings missing. I snapped pics and this looks too much like a very clean cut like someone purposely cut the feathers off. Notice how all those quills seem to have a very clean break right in the same area. Like someone took shears to the wings and sliced them off.
If someone is doing this, could there be a reason? They stay in the area all the time and never fly away, so I don't see why anyone would want to make them flightless. And 2 ducks with the exact same wing cut is too much of a coincidence.
Could this still be a regular molt, or someone cutting off their wings?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Wow that had to bleed that’s cut higher than should be and sure does look like someone did that one. Do they belong to someone who’s trying to keep them grounded?

 

[chris330r]

Wow that had to bleed that’s cut higher than should be and sure does look like someone did that one. Do they belong to someone who’s trying to keep them grounded?

No these are wild ducks that just live by the pond. Nobody owns them. They freely waddle all over the place and down to the public park across from the pond. I'm trying to figure out why someone would do this as there has to be a logical reason or purpose.
The city recently put up "No fishing" signs by the pond, so i'm now wondering if the city that's now handling these ducks. But racking my brain to figure out a purpose of this.

Maybe to make them more prone to predators and get eaten?! I recall someone saying in another thread that Muscovy's are a nuisance to some. But this just seems cruel to do.

Also, to catch them to do this must take some experience in handling them since they're fast and fly away quickly. Makes me wonder if it was the city that's doing it. Or at least more than one person in order to catch them to cut those wings off.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I clip my Muscovy ducks wings to keep them home an safe but that’s way to much clipped off. If you see any others like that maybe ask? Not everyone likes ducks because of their poop so someone maybe doing this so they can’t evade predators. In the state of Florida I have heard they can be killed for no other reason than they live. Very sad when it’s humans fault there are feral Muscovy ducks to begin with. The only wild ones are migratory and fly in an out of a small section of Texas they are protected.

 

[chris330r]

They're all out there now and it's only those 2 with the wings clipped. The females are all untouched and a couple of other drakes still have their full wings. I think it's disgusting someone would do this just because they don't like them.
It's a pond for heaven sake and where they're supposed to live. And with the duck population the way it is and how much they breed, getting rid of 2 on a pond isn't going to make a difference in the slightest.
I'll ask around and try and find out if neighbors know anything. I feel terrible for them if someone is trying to do them in.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I'd like to know to since that second is def a clip job.

 

[Miss Lydia]

This is the diagram I used when I first started clipping my Muscovy ducks wings.

 

[Quackter]

I had a drake this spring, for what ever reason, he just liked eating feathers. I only ever seen him get the chickens, but if they got too close he'd just reach over and grab a beak full of feathers from the gun shy chickens. Then he'd eat them. He mainly took them from middle of the back, not wing feathers.

 

[chris330r]

It just seems pointless to do this to them. The only predators here are the herons and egrets that eat the ducklings. I've seen a couple of raccoons across the pond scurry into the bushes, but even those can't get them if they run into the water.
And the wings will grow back anyway, so it's something whoever is doing this will need to maintain.
You'd think after clipping the wings, they'd pick them up and relocate them rather than leave them here if they despise them so much.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Seems that way. I wish we knew the reasoning for this. Just really strange to me.