Hundreds of rescued ducks in California were given away to unvetted adopters, including a man with an affinity for cockfighting and a livestock company, activists say. The Riverside County Department of Animal Services (RCDAS) took possession of 480 ducks surrendered by a property owner in unincorporated Riverside County on April 14.
Animal Control Officers inspected the property leading up to the large-scale operation as part of an ongoing investigation, and the relinquishment was due to overcrowding at the property, according to RCDAS. 'This large-scale operation requires intense coordination across our department, and our main priority is the safe transport and intake of these animals today,' said RCDAS Assistant Director Dr. Kimberly Youngberg. 'We cannot provide long-term shelter care for this number of animals, so it's important we work quickly to find placement with rescues, adopters, and organizations willing to assist this week.'
Two days later, RCDAS announced on Facebook that all the ducks had been rescued or adopted, after making them available on a first-come, first-served basis and waiving all fees. One man whose Facebook profile lists multiple references to cockfighting said he got 11 of the ducks. A business named Matt's Livestock got 270 of the birds and began selling them on Facebook for $15 each, The Orange County Register reported.
A man from the business, who identified himself as Matt, told the newspaper that he does not vet his customers. 'I do not do any screenings,' he said. 'I run a livestock business.' Animal activists quickly expressed concern that the ducks had been given to the wrong people. 'Personally not happy when I found out the process of how they will just give it away, God knows how many what it ended up on someone's plate,' one person wrote on Facebook. 'I don’t know why you are patting yourselves on the backs, this case was handled atrociously,' wrote another. 'These ducks moved from one horrible situation right into another. Allowing someone to take 300 ducks only for them to be immediately listed for sale is not rescue. You just handed them out like candy on Halloween not caring who they went too.'
A third person wrote, 'And how many of them are on the dinner table tonight?' 'This is disturbing, mass adopting of birds without caring if they are just going to another problem situation is irresponsible,' added a fourth. It is unclear if any background checks were done on the duck adopters. RCDAS told the newspaper they had to rehome the ducks quickly because it was 'in the best interest of the animals,' given that the surrender was 'the largest single intake for the department in over a decade.'
'Given our inability to provide long-term care for that many animals, we urgently acted to secure placement through rescue and adoption, leaning on the public to give the animals a different outcome than the overcrowded conditions they came from,' public information officer Veronica Perez said. 'Urgency was of the essence in order to not impact the planned large-scale intake or impede the ongoing investigation.' The Daily Mail contacted the Riverside County Department of Animal Services for comment.
