Ducks drive neighbours quackers
Rutland Times Published on the 23 June 2006
A baby boom among a family of ducks is putting people's lives and sanity at risk, according to frustrated neighbours.
Forty ducks are currently living in the garden of a house in Queens Road, Oakham, but neighbours say they are causing youngsters to dice with death on the roads.
It is understood two Oakham CE Primary School children have already had near misses after dashing out in front of passing cars to get a closer look.
Resident Alan Walters said: "The owner only used to have a few, and once in a blue moon they would escape, now there are about 40 which are often out in the road at rush hour.
"A child almost got run over when she was chasing them down the street and it has gone beyond a joke.
Something will happen before long when a car swerves to miss them or a child runs out to look at them."
Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, said the noise and mess the ducks leave behind makes life unbearable but she says the RSPCA cannot do anything because they are not being mistreated and Rutland County Council cannot intervene unless it is cows, sheep or chickens on the loose.
The woman said: "We can get woken up at three in the morning so it's a case of either keeping the windows closed and boiling or leaving them open and getting woken up.
"I've got no problem with what people have in their gardens, it's just when they come into mine. I've got young children and they keep coming in with duck poo all over them."
But the greatest sympathy from neighbours goes to the primary school caretaker who they say is having to do extra cleaning after the children traipse the ducks' mess through the school grounds.
Residents say he also had to clear up a dead duck which had been run over outside the school gates.
But owner Wendy Miller has defended her family of ducks which, she says, are not as troublesome as people think.
She originally had two ducks as pets but an unexpected baby boom meant they multiplied.
Mrs Miller said: "It's just a temporary thing but we can't sell them until they are fully grown.
"People seem to think I'm deliberately letting them out but some are so small they can get out through tiny gaps in the fence.
"They don't eat people's plants, just the bugs off them, and the kids are so used to seeing them now, they aren't bothered any more."
Eight of the ducks will be going to market over the next couple of weeks and the others were due to have their wings clipped this week to stop them flying out of their garden.
Mrs Miller added that in the coming weeks all of the birds will be sold except the original pair.
Rutland Times Published on the 23 June 2006
A baby boom among a family of ducks is putting people's lives and sanity at risk, according to frustrated neighbours.
Forty ducks are currently living in the garden of a house in Queens Road, Oakham, but neighbours say they are causing youngsters to dice with death on the roads.
It is understood two Oakham CE Primary School children have already had near misses after dashing out in front of passing cars to get a closer look.
Resident Alan Walters said: "The owner only used to have a few, and once in a blue moon they would escape, now there are about 40 which are often out in the road at rush hour.
"A child almost got run over when she was chasing them down the street and it has gone beyond a joke.
Something will happen before long when a car swerves to miss them or a child runs out to look at them."
Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, said the noise and mess the ducks leave behind makes life unbearable but she says the RSPCA cannot do anything because they are not being mistreated and Rutland County Council cannot intervene unless it is cows, sheep or chickens on the loose.
The woman said: "We can get woken up at three in the morning so it's a case of either keeping the windows closed and boiling or leaving them open and getting woken up.
"I've got no problem with what people have in their gardens, it's just when they come into mine. I've got young children and they keep coming in with duck poo all over them."
But the greatest sympathy from neighbours goes to the primary school caretaker who they say is having to do extra cleaning after the children traipse the ducks' mess through the school grounds.
Residents say he also had to clear up a dead duck which had been run over outside the school gates.
But owner Wendy Miller has defended her family of ducks which, she says, are not as troublesome as people think.
She originally had two ducks as pets but an unexpected baby boom meant they multiplied.
Mrs Miller said: "It's just a temporary thing but we can't sell them until they are fully grown.
"People seem to think I'm deliberately letting them out but some are so small they can get out through tiny gaps in the fence.
"They don't eat people's plants, just the bugs off them, and the kids are so used to seeing them now, they aren't bothered any more."
Eight of the ducks will be going to market over the next couple of weeks and the others were due to have their wings clipped this week to stop them flying out of their garden.
Mrs Miller added that in the coming weeks all of the birds will be sold except the original pair.
