On Christmas Day our Marathon Campus was given quite the surprise – 14 baby ducklings! After a resident ordered 14 ducks online they quickly became overwhelmed by their care and ready to give the little ones away. Like most exotic pets, ducks require an extreme amount of care, cleaning, special diet, and environment. Although adorable, these feathered friends exist on a farm and in ponds for a reason – they are messy!
Safe with us, our biggest challenge was what to do with the ducks since keeping them in Monroe County is actually illegal. Did you know – Monroe County has an ordinance that prohibits keeping any livestock. Sec. 4-76. – Keeping wild animals and livestock. (a) No livestock, as defined in section 4-1, or barnyard animals such as chickens, ducks or geese, shall be kept either penned or loose in any area unless permitted by the county. Unable to adopt them out here, we had to get creative.
Thanks to the power of social media we shared our little ducklings online looking for a family with a farm on the mainland willing to take in our homeless babies. Luckily, someone saw our plea for help and was more than happy to open their home on 10 acres in Central Florida to all 14 ducklings. All she needed was transportation!
Once again, thanks to the incredible generosity of our animal-loving community a local pilot offered to donate his time, and his plane, to fly the ducklings to Orlando. So, on a cool January day, we loaded all 14 ducklings into carriers and onto the private plane for a first class one way trip to their new home.
It never ceases to amaze me how well our community comes together to help the animals of the Florida Keys. Our volunteers and fosters are essential to our operations and make direct impacts on the animals in our care everyday. There are so many ways you can join us in our life saving efforts by becoming a volunteer or foster! Learn more about our program by visiting us at https://fkspca.org/volunteer/how-to-volunteer/ or email [email protected].
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