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Domestic Disturbance
Many abandoned pets become food for coyotes and other predators

Story By P.J PEREA

That cute little duck that you bought as a pet for your kids this spring should be getting pretty ifig by now. It's eating duck food by the bushel and leaving an unappealing mess on your lawn, or worse, your carpet. Your kids don't find the duck very much fun anymore—it's less attractive as an adult than the fuzzy yellow ball of fluff that caught your eye at the pet store. Maybe, it's time to find a new home for your not-so-welcome guest. Perhaps a farm will take it in or a local animal shelter.

Just don't become a well-meaning parent that ends up dumping the duck off at a local state park or park district pond to fend for itself. The thought that it should be happy feeding on handouts from passing park visitors or that maybe it will fly south with its cousins this fall is not the reality of the situation. You would be doing more harm than good, and your former pet's future would look pretty bleak.

Domestic animals are poorly suited for living in the wild. They've been bred to trust and depend on people for their needs. Their natural instincts are not honed for avoiding predators such as coyotes, feral dogs and raptors. Physically they are not designed for sustained flight, and their urge to migrate no longer exists. Their immune systems are weak and may spread avian diseases to wild birds. And even worse, their genetics can pollute naturally reproducing local duck populations.

Genetic pollution is rarely brought up as a major concern, but when domestic ducks manage to breed with wild ducks, wild ducks are the victims. The wild-domestic hybrid ducklings suffer from many of the same problems as their domesticated parent. They occupy habitat that would be better suited for wild birds and their offspring. And the wild duck that should have bred loses the opportunity to pass its genes to the next generation.

Illinois isn't exactly a duck factory like the pothole regions of the west, but our state does produce some wild birds. The release of domestic birds only harms our local populations.

So please do our local birds and domestic ducks a favor. Don't buy or release domesticated birds. If you don't plan on taking care of them all of their lives, stuffed animals make better gifts. They don't need to be fed and will never leave a mess on your carpet.



PHOTO By CHAS. J. DEES

June 2002    19


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