From Hillside Animal Sanctuary……BBC Pics Of The Week – Scotland…..
by Bernie Bell - 09:02 on 07 January 2024
From Hillside Animal Sanctuary…..
“Setting the Scene...
An area of land close to the Sanctuary is home to a family of 30 pigs who we rescued back in 2009. They have a large pond which they love to wade and wallow in during the warm summer months and where they share life with a handful of wild ducks who have taken refuge there.
Just up the road from here, on a neighbouring farmer’s field, is another pond which unfortunately has a very different ‘use’. Every year, it is ‘stocked’ with ducklings whose sole purpose is to provide entertainment for those who find it fun to shoot them. The frightened birds are scared off the pond, across a narrow country lane, into the range of lined-up guns ready to take pot shots as they fly over. While driving past on ‘shoot days’, I’ve so often encountered the birds falling out of the sky as they’re being brutally shot, and illegally, being too close to the public lane. A couple of years ago, I stopped and had a word with them. I told them I thought it pathetic that grown men should take pleasure in shooting live animals for fun and I’m obviously too lady-like to repeat here what else I said, after which I reported their activities to the Police. I have often had to catch the casualties of their ‘fun’ such as the ducks with feet blown off and just left to hobble around.
In 2022, again we saw a new flock of ducklings appear on and around the pond and disorientated, they were wandering in large groups all over the road. Again, I just happened to drive past on a shoot day but this time I thought I would stop and make a compassionate plea to them to think about what they were doing. Local residents have often complained that injured and dead birds and even gunshot, have crashed against their bedroom windows and the gunmen often trespassed over their property in pursuit of fallen prey. One shooter’s response to me was ‘We enjoy it’. So I told them if they wanted to shoot they should ‘join the army’ after which I again reported them.
Last year, the farmer’s pond was again refilled with doomed birds and I thought to myself ‘here we go again!’. However, one morning when staff went to feed and bed in the pigs by ‘our’ pond, they reported back that an unusual amount of ducks had appeared on it and the following morning, another large flock of ducks were waiting at the gate to come in to join their friends on the water. Of course we realised where the ‘new’ ducks had come from and a few days later we received an expected phone call and, although the caller preceded the conversation with ‘they knew what the answer would be’, ‘could they have their ducks back?’ Legally, if wild birds make their way onto somebody else’s land there is no obligation to hand them over! And, of course, we didn’t!
The Story Doesn't End Here......
Later that summer, we were disappointed to see that once again the farmer’s pond had been again filled with more young ducks and again we dreaded the fate that awaited them. But, would you believe, all these new ducks, once they had grown enough feathers, also flew down to join ‘ours’ on the pond!
Not trusting what might happen next, and with nil ducks on the farmer’s pond to kill, on planned shoot days we had somebody guarding ‘our’ birds which were happily swimming and quacking around as the shooters drove disappointedly up and down the lane only being able to look at them. Then, on a next shoot day, they tried to fool us. They brought forward their usual 11am shoot to first light so when our staff arrived to tend to the pigs at 7.30am they found men trying to frighten the birds off the water by shaking plastic bags at them from our field verge. Unfortunately, some did fly off into the line of waiting guns but happily most made their way back safely to the sanctuary of our pond.
The Outcome....
Following all this disgusting behaviour, we talked to the landowner’s wife and we are very pleased to say they have said that they will not allow any further shoots of this kind on their property.
The upshot of this story is that we are very happy to give sanctuary to 250 more ducks than we had expected who are regularly dibbling and dabbling their way through several bags of corn.
If anyone would like to donate a bag of mixed corn for them, we would be very grateful for your help..
Please click HERE to donate corn
Donation Helpline 01603 736200
(9am-9pm 7 days)”
I find it hard to believe that the behaviour of the ‘shooters’ is legal – but, apparently, it is. Note that I refer to them as ‘shooters’ - not ‘hunters’ – that’s because they don’t hunt – they just shoot.
How did the ’new’ set of ducks know to copy the behaviour of the ducks from the year before? Is this an example of a ‘Hundredth Duck‘ effect?....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundredth_monkey_effect
The story makes me think of ‘The Magic Finger’ by Roal Dahl…..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Finger
If only…..
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BBC Pics Of The Week – Scotland…..
30th December 2023 – 5th January 2024….
Hogmanay…..A New Year…..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c28yp1d3nvlo
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