Duck Killer

A 10-year-old child has been charged with animal cruelty in connection with an attack last month that presumably orphaned nine ducklings after their mother and a sibling were likely stoned to death at Hoopes Park, officials said.

Auburn Police Department Lt. Shawn Butler said it's up to the county attorney to decide whether or not to prosecute the child with the misdemeanor charge in family court.

A representative from the county attorney's office was not immediately available.

Two children younger than 13 years old were also with the 10-year-old during the alleged incident that occurred on May 17, but were not charged, Butler said.

“We can only draw the charge against the one who actually killed a duck based on the evidence,” Butler said. “Through interviews with the children and their parents we were able to determine who threw the rocks. Because we talked to the parents, they are well aware of what their kids where doing and where.”

City Manager Mark Palesh said that he and city maintenance worker Jeff Brown gathered up the ducklings a day after the attack and placed them in the park's greenhouse attached to the back of the club house. Palesh's daughter, Madeline, 11, and Brown's daughters, Alexis, 12, and Kate, 5, helped take care of the ducklings for several days.

But by the end of the week, Palesh said, two Department of Environmental Conservation officials told him he needed a migratory bird permit to take care of the ducks and that the animals would be transferred to Kindred Kingdoms Wildlife Rehabilitation in Pennellville.

Jean Soprano, president of Kindred Kingdoms, said the ducklings, which are between 4 and 6 weeks old, are now living with 10 other orphaned ducklings.

“They have doubled in size in about a week,” Soprano said. “They are eating and growing like little pigs. We want to limit their human interaction because they will be released into the wild after they grow their primary flight feathers, which won't happen until September.”

Soprano said her goal is to release them into a heated pond in the Utica area next winter, where they will learn the migratory habits from other ducks.

The ducklings cannot be released into Hoopes Park because the ducks there do not migrate, Soprano said.

But that does not mean none of them will return to Auburn.

“The female ducks will return,” Soprano said. “Ducks are matriarchal, and when the mate, they mate for life and they always return to where the female was born. It's instinct.”


Idiots ... Did it ever occur to you that the children ... the CHILDREN people are protecting us from the Animals?!? Why ... WHY! would they kill a duck for no reason? Because, there IS a Reason!!!!!!!!!!!!

Animal Uprising 2012 ... Obviously, the Children knew the ducks were evil ... there is no other explanation ... and you di*ckheads want to lock up our protectors ...

You will all suffer ...