Five emaciated ducks rescued in southwest Oklahoma City after found with zip ties cinched around their necks and bills

Five ducks were rescued in southwest Oklahoma City Thursday morning after having zip ties cinched around their necks and bills, forcing them to become emaciated.

A rescue team was able to corral them and bring them in and eventually found out how horrible their injuries were. All of them were emaciated and one even had a broken leg and two BB pellets in it. The workers that rescued them said they all appeared to be domesticated and dumped at the pond.

“Any kind of situation like that, that’s pretty serious for those animals,” said Laura Biddick, an operations manager at WildCare Oklahoma.

“Unfortunately, it happens way too much,” said Carter Stephens, an animal care manager at WildCare Oklahoma. “In this field, everyday I’m seeing something that just makes you go ‘wow.'”

The ducks are doing much better than they were just days ago before they were rescued. The zip ties were tightened around their necks. Biddick said as they tried to groom their necks, their bills eventually got stuck too. They were unable to eat or drink for days.

“These ducks had been underfed for quite some time,” Biddick said.

According to Biddick, people in the area around the pond told them they started noticing the ducks sometime late last week. She said the nonprofit company normally wouldn’t go out there to save them since they don’t have the resources.

“But when we’re the only people capable in the area, we’re going to go out and do that,” Biddick said.

First, they went out on Tuesday to try and catch them but couldn’t. They made their way back out there on Thursday with a new plan.

“Luckily, the ducks cooperated very well with us and we were able to corral them up a creek,” Biddick said. “It was maybe a 10-minute ordeal.”

“We had to kind of get their guts restarted,” Stephens said. “We had to tube them Pedialyte just to rehydrate them.”

According to Stephens, all five ducks had to be placed on a special diet to get nutrients. However, one of the little guys was worse off than the others. He was suffering from a broken femur and was shot with two BB pellets.

“He also has some spinal trauma caused by those BBs,” Stephens said.

Both Stephens and Biddick are still trying to figure out why someone would do this.

“My gut tells me it was just pure ignorance,” Biddick said.

“Unfortunately, it is just something we have to deal with, and we’re always ready for the next case,” Stephens said.

However, on a positive note, two of the ducks actually formed a special bond out of this situation.

“Whenever they’re separated from each other, they start throwing a fit,” Biddick said.

The duck with the broken leg has been splinted and taped up and will be recovering on cage rest for about four to six weeks. The situation is under investigation. Biddick and Stephens said all the ducks are recovering well and after some time they will find a habitat that fits them to take them back out in the wild.