Disgust at people buying ducklings ‘for TikTok videos’
Gillian Bird, the head of education and media at the DSPCA, said there appears to be a trend on TikTok where people video a day in the life of a duckling, which is fuelling the practice.
The Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA) is calling on the public not to buy ducklings following reports that the young birds were being offered for sale on the city streets for as little as €5.
Gillian Bird, the head of education and media at the DSPCA, said there appears to be a trend on TikTok where people video a day in the life of a duckling, which is fuelling the practice.
Videos on the platform with the hashtag ‘ducklings’ have amassed more than 276m views.
“We suspect that what is happening is that it has caught on now - people know that others are going to buy ducklings – they go down to the canal, scoop up a few ducklings and they seem to be selling them for about €5 each.”
The charity began fielding calls from people yesterday who had been offered ducklings for sale on the streets.
“We know that some people had actually gone out to buy ducklings,” she added.
“We had one lady who actually bought ten of them off some kids who were selling them - it's one of those situations where we're very worried - where have they come from? Who's going to look after them? Are they going to be looked after properly? A family home, living in your bathtub is not a good home for a duckling.”
Ms Bird told RTÉ radio’s program that the birds on offer seem to be a mixture of farmyard ducklings and wild ducklings.
Farmyard ducklings are “the lovely little yellow ones,” she explained, while brown ducklings might be from different breeds of ducks that have come from the wild ducks that live on the canals and ponds.
It takes up to four weeks for a duckling’s feathers to become fully waterproof, she said.
“So you end up with a situation where they get very cold if they're not kept in the correct environment like under a heat lamp or a heat pad. They've got to be kept warm, they've got to be fed properly - they also have a lifespan of between seven and 15 years - so what are people going to be doing with them long term?”
There were already videos on social media of people saying they were now tired of their duckling and they were going to release them back into the canal, she added.
“These ducklings are very young, they should be with their parents, they should be looked after properly and they're just going to get picked off by predators and are going to die.”
Cork poultry company O’Leary’s Poultry in Macroom has also hit out about people looking to buy ducklings for use in social media videos and said that they have had a number of calls from people looking to buy ducklings in recent days.
Erika O’Leary, from the company, said that her husband spoke to one person who specifically said they wanted a duckling for TikTok.
Ms O’Leary said that she was “disgusted” that people would buy a duckling just to use on social media.
The company said on Facebook that they will not be selling ducklings to anyone without a flock number, as it would assist with tracing buyers.
A flock number is issued to a person who is then responsible for the care of the animals under various disease eradication and control schemes and for complying with animal identification regulations and for record-keeping.
Ms O’Leary said that the ducklings “are going to grow into big animals that need water, need outdoor space [and] need taking care of.
“And they're vulnerable to predators. They are definitely not suitable for indoor animals.”
The DSPCA has advised anyone who comes across someone selling ducks or ducklings to report it to the Gardaí or the DSPCA.
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